Hydraotes Chaos

Image of the Day explores the nomenclature of Mars. Hydraotes Chaos = Chaos: distinctive area of broken terrain. Hydraotes: Alexander the Great attacked the Mallains on the banks of the Hydraotes River (today's Ravi River) during his conquest of India.
Hydraotes Chaos is typical of chaos regions on Mars. Note the break up of the plateau into smaller mesas separated by deep valleys. In some chaos, the mesas also seem to get fractured into smaller and smaller segments. Nomenclature Fact of the Day: A person must be deceased for at least three years before his/her name can be used for a planetary feature.