#syrtis major

The Martian Shoreline and the Perseverance Rover This image is a hypothetical composite – it takes the surface of Mars mostly as known today and adds water up to a certain depth. There are very good reasons to believe there was once this much water on Mars for at least some time – putative shorelines have been identified from orbit based on their shape, chemical estimates based on isotopes of hydrogen suggest similar amounts of water were plausible, and many erosional features such as channels showing water flow directions. For today, I want you to focus on the triangular shape jutting north, into the ocean basin. 

Title Nili Fossae

Released 22/01/2015 11:30 am

Copyright ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Description

The Nili Fossae graben system, part of which is shown in this image, is an area of great geological interest near the giant Isidis impact basin, northeast of the Syrtis Major volcanic province.

The graben system contains numerous troughs, one of which can be seen crossing the lower left of this image. On the plateau above, several depressions can be seen, some of them extending into the trough. A large, 55 km-diameter impact crater with a central pit can be seen on the right.

This image was acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express on 16 October 2014 during orbit 13699. It is centred on 75°E / 24°N. The ground resolution is about 18 m per pixel.  North is to the right, west is up.

Edward Emerson Barnard, Mars, photographed with the Yerkes Observatory 40-inch refractor telescope, 29-09-1909.

From National Geographic:

Volcanic Plains Image courtesy G. Neukum, F.U. Berlin/DLR/ESA

A new picture from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter shows windswept craters in Syrtis Major, a large volcanic plain near the red planet's equator.

From Earth, the roughly 800-by-930-mile (1,300-by-1,500-kilometer) plain is easily identified through backyard telescopes as a distinct dark spot. In the 1600s Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens used changes in the position of Syrtis Major as Mars rotated to estimate the length of a Martian day.