Thanks to a high resolution camera used by NASA, a canyon ten times as long as the grand canyon and three times as deep has been revealed on Mars. It’s been named Valles Marinaris, meaning mariner valley in Latin. It is 2,500 miles wide and 7 miles deep. Nasa pointed out that if it were on earth, it would stretch from New York to San Francisco.
This discovery has raised questions about how such a massive canyon could form on Mars. While it has been confirmed that water on Mars exists and has existed in the past, it isn’t thought that a canyon this big could be created by Mars’ water supply alone. “Unlike Earth's Grand Canyon, Valles Marineris probably wasn't carved out by billions of years of rushing water; the Red Planet is too hot and dry to have ever accommodated a river large enough to slash through the crust like that” (Live Science).
The most prominent theory right now is that the canyon was first formed by an eruption of volcanoes on Mars’ Tharsis region. The heat from the magma stretched the and ripped through the crater and eventually collapsed, forming the trench. Over the following eons, the flowing of magma and possibly water deepened the trench creating the 7 mile deep canyon that exists today.
Further analysis of these photos will reveal more about the origin of this trench. For now it is simply an awesome discovery that reveals more about the topography of mars. If you would like to see Nasa’s images of the crater, please visit the second link in the bibliography.
Bibliography
“Mars Education: Developing the Next Generation of Explorers.” Mars Education | Developing the Next Generation of Explorers, marsed.asu.edu/mep/tectonics/canyons.
“Mars Exploration: Multimedia.” NASA, NASA, mars.nasa.gov/gallery/atlas/valles-marineris.html#:~:text=Valles%20Marineris%2C%20or%20Mariner%20Valley,7%20km%20(4%20mi)!
Ramirez, Sonia. “Largest Canyon in Solar System Found on Mars.” Chron, The Houston Chronicle, 8 Jan. 2021, www.chron.com/news/space/article/Mars-canyon-Grand-canyon-three-times-deeper-15855597.php?IPID=Chron-HP-CP-Spotlight.
Rice, Doyle. “New Photos Reveal Massive Canyon on Mars, the Largest in the Solar System, NASA Says.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 6 Jan. 2021, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/05/mars-canyon-larger-than-grand-canyon-biggest-solar-system-nasa/4141377001/.
Specktor, Brandon. “Largest Canyon in the Solar System Revealed in Stunning New Images.” LiveScience, Purch, 4 Jan. 2021, www.livescience.com/mars-deepest-canyon-in-solar-system.html.
