Martian landslides dot the inner walls of Noctis Labyrinthus, better
known as the Labyrinth of Night, on the red planet
Martian
landslides dot the inner walls of Noctis Labyrinthus, better known as the Labyrinth
of Night, on the red planet.
Noctis
Labyrinthus is a vast gash across an equatorial region of mars west of its
immense Valles Marineris canyon. Dark streaks can be seen along the edges of
the Labyrinth of Night and are likely due to debris – such as boulders, rocks
or even gravel, sand or dust – sliding down the canyon walls.
At the foot
of the slopes lie the traces of older – and larger – avalanches of material
that resulted in piles of large rocks and other debris.
NASA’s Mars
Odyssey spacecraft used its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) to build
this eye-catching, but false-color, view of Noctis Labyrinthus. The spacecraft
observed light in both the infrared and visible wavelengths in a specific
section of the labyrinth where two canyons meet to form a depression 13,000
feet (3,962 meters) deep.
-- SPACE.com Staff
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