THEMIS Vistas

SPILLWAY. Looking upstream in Ares Vallis, the broad channel almost disappears into the scenery, despite being roughly 100 kilometers (60 miles) wide here. At left center, a partly destroyed crater named Oraibi stands at the head of a mid-channel island, streamlined into a teardrop shape by the floodwaters. The lack of a narrow meandering channel, such as is found in many large terrestrial rivers, suggests the floods here were massive but brief. The vertical exaggeration is 1.5x. (A 430 kB version of the image is available.) Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University, R. Luk.

To explore this area further, check out the THEMIS feature article.