Labeatis Fossae is a large trough in the

Lunae Palus quadrangle The Lunae Palus quadrangle is one of a series of list of quadrangles on Mars, 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle (geography), quadrangle is also referred to ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, located at 25.5° N and 84.1° W. It is 1,560.0 km long and was named after a previously named feature at 30N, 75W. The term "fossae" is used to indicate large troughs when using geographical terminology related to Mars. Troughs, sometimes also called

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

s, form when the crust is stretched until it breaks, which forms two breaks with a middle section moving down, leaving steep cliffs along the sides. Sometimes, a line of pits form as materials collapse into a void that forms from the stretching.Mars Global Surveyor MOC2-620 Release
/ref> Image:Labeatis Fossae.jpg, Labeatis Fossae in context, as seen by THEMIS.

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