A large system of canyons on Mars, centred at about –14° lat., 60° W long. It is the largest canyon in the Solar System, 3800 km long, up to 500 km wide, and over 4 km deep in places. It is really a complex of several parallel troughs, the central ones being the Ius, Melas, Coprates, and Eos Chasmata, with Tithonium, Ophir, Candor, and Gangis Chasmata to the north. Hebes and Juventae Chasmata are separate from the main complex, lying further north. They are all thought to have been caused by tensional faulting within Mars, and all have been modified and enlarged by the action of ancient water channels running down their walls. Valles Marineris, named after the Mariner 9 spacecraft that discovered it in 1971, is visible from Earth as the dark streak Coprates. Its darkness may be due to dust covering part of the canyon floor.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00422
A complex system of rift valleys and canyons on the surface of Mars. It was first delineated by the Mariner 9 spacecraft that surveyed the planet from its orbit in 1971. It is 4 500 km long and up to 8 km deep. Part of the system is visible from Earth-bound telescopes as a dark streak known as Coprates.
- signum function
- SIG quote
- Sihanouk, Norodom (1922–2012)
- Sikhism
- Sikhote–Alin meteorite
- Sikh Wars (1845–49)
- Sikorski, Władysław (1881–1943)
- SIL
- silane
- silcrete
- SIL devices
- silent discharge
- silent mutation
- silent quake
- silent zone
- Silesian
- silex
- silica
- silica gel
- silicane
- silica-oversaturated rock
- silica saturation
- silica(symbol: SiO2)
- silicate
- silicate minerals