 |
| What We Know About the Red Planet | ||||
| History | Water | Ice | Air | Canals |
| Seasons | Mountains | Rocks | SandDunes | Rift Valley |
| Moons | Dust Storms | Stats | Closest | Kid Pix |
| Lunar | Movies | Life Search | Wanted | Exploring Mars |
An immense crack in the Red Planet's crust:
The Great Rift Valley of Mars
Near the four giant shield volcanoes is an immense crack in the crust of Mars. This 3,100-mile-long (5,000-kilometer-long) rift valley is a series of canyons, each several hundred miles long and up to 62 miles (100 kilometers) wide.
Valles Marineris seen on Mars by Viking
click to enlarge 215k NASA image
Such a mammoth gorge in the United States would stretch from San Diego to Boston.
Rift valleys are well known on Earth, of course. For instance, in Africa they represent the breakup of that continent into two separate plates. There also is a remarkable rift valley on the planet Venus.
Rifting is the first step in plate tectonics, the beginning of plate formation. The process seems to have started on Mars, but the planet cooled too much to have the active plate movements we know as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
There may be occasional small "marsquakes" and volcanic eruptions, but Mars is a dying world geologically.
Learn more: Human Exploration of Mars:
There have been three stages of exploration so farFlybys:
Probes fly by Mars taking pictures Orbiters:
Spacecraft fly into orbit above MarsLanders and Rovers:
- Orbiters
- Mariner 8-9
- Viking 1-2
- Mars Observer
- Mars Climate Orbiter
- Mars Global Surveyor
- Mars Global Surveyor home
- 2001 Mars Odyssey
- 2001 Mars Odyssey home
- Mars Express
- Mars Express home
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 2005
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter home
Landers and rovers drop to the surfaceSand dunes: Dust Storms: Air: Carbon Dioxide: Outflow Channels: Valley Networks: Rift Valley: Ice: Ice caps: Frost: Water: Artesian Water: Mars Weather: Mars Photo Galleries: Planet features: Canals: Rocks: Mountains: Dating and aging: Seasons:
