Ares Vallis

MarsGeo-Valley
name=Ares Vallis


caption=Mars Pathfinder (at 19.13 N, 33.22 W) photographed the region where Ares Vallis borders Chryse
latitude=10.4
N_or_S=N
longitude=25.8
E_or_W=W
location=North of Margaritifer Terra, south of Chryse Planitia, west of Meridiani Planum
length=1,700.0 km
naming=Word for 'Mars' in Greek.

Ares Vallis is a valley on Mars which appears to have been carved by fluids, perhaps water. The valley 'flows' northwest out of the hilly Margaritifer Terra, where the Iani Chaos depression (180 km long and 200 km wide) is connected to the beginning of Ares Vallis by a 100-km wide transition zone centred around 342.5º East (17.5 West) and 3º North. [ [http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMIKO0DU8E_0.html Mars Express - Ancient floods on Mars: Iani Chaos and Ares Vallis] , ESA, 2005-06-01] . It then continues through the ancient Xanthe Terra highlands, and ends in a delta-like region of Chryse Planitia.

Its name comes from the Greek name for Mars: Ares, the god of war.

Ares Vallis was the landing site of NASA's "Mars Pathfinder" spacecraft, which studied a region of the valley near the border with Chryse in 1997.

Notes

ee also

*Mars
*Mars Pathfinder

External links

* [http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=10.3&lon=-25.8 Google Mars scrollable map] - centered on Ares Vallis