Deep valleys of Candor Chasma

Valles Marineris is an approximately 3000-km-long canyon system on Mars. Candor Chasma, situated in its northern part, is part of a radial graben system. A graben is a feature bound by parallel normal faults, where the graben floor moves downward relative to the adjoining material. The grabens in the area were created radially, as the Tharsis bulge formed due to volcanic uplift.

The upper part shows rugged, irregular material and appears to be a remnant of the older, basaltic plateau. In contrast, the lower part is smoother and is made up of run-off rock debris and material from larger landslides that formed a slope.

There are different theories explaining how Candor Chasma came to its present form. One of these states that the volcanism in the Tharsis region uplifted the entire area. In the course of the uplift, a lot of stresses were exerted on the crust causing it to thin out and form large grabens. Such a natural process, where stresses exerted in opposite directions deform the rocky material, is called extensional tectonics.

The anaglyph image was calculated from the nadir and one stereo channel, stereoscopic glasses are required to view it. The black and white high-resolution images were derived from the nadir channel which provides the highest detail of all channels.

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