Candor Chasma is one of the largest

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

s in the

Valles Marineris Valles Marineris (; Latin for ''Mariner program, Mariner Valleys'', named after the ''Mariner 9'' Mars orbiter of 1971–72 which discovered it) is a system of canyons that runs along the Mars, Martian surface east of the Tharsis region. At more ...

canyon system on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. The feature is geographically divided into two halves: East and West Candor Chasmas, respectively. It is unclear how the canyon originally formed; one theory is that it was expanded and deepened by tectonic processes similar to a

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

, while another suggests that it was formed by subsurface water erosion similar to a

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

. MRO discovered sulfates, hydrated sulfates, and iron oxides in Candor Chasma. One of the pictures below shows branched channels. Many places on Mars show channels of different sizes. Many of these channels probably carried water, at least for a time. The climate of Mars may have been such in the past that water ran on its surface. It has been known for some time that Mars undergoes many large changes in its tilt or obliquity because its two small moons lack the gravity to stabilize it, as the Moon stabilizes Earth; at times the tilt of Mars has even been greater than 80 degreesLaskar, J., A. Correia, M. Gastineau, F. Joutel, B. Levrard, and P. Robutel. 2004. "Long term evolution and chaotic diffusion of the insolation quantities of Mars". ''Icarus'' 170, 343-364.

Gallery

Image:Candor Chasma region of Valles Marineris, Mars.jpg, Tectonic fractures in Candor Chasma as seen by

HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction o ...

Image:Candor Channels.jpg, Channels in Candor plateau, as seen by HiRISE. Location is

Coprates quadrangle The Coprates quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Coprates quadrangle is also referred to as MC-18 (Mars Chart-18). The Coprates quadra ...

. Click on image to see many small, branched channels which are strong evidence for sustained precipitation.

References

External links

HiRISE observation of tectonic fractures
at an altitude of 100 meters by Adrian Lark and Mars3D.com; se
album
for more *High resolutio
flyover video
by Seán Doran of layered terrain in southwest Candor Chasma, an
morevideos
of Ceti Mensa, based on NASA digital terrain models; se
album
for more
Flyover video
of Ceti Mensa and west Candor Chasma by Carter Emmart; se
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for more * * * Valleys and canyons on Mars Coprates quadrangle {{mars-stub

Gallery

See also

References

External links