The Tartarus Montes are a
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...
on the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
, stretching over 1070 km and located around the coordinates 15.46º N, 167.54º E,
between
Orcus Patera and the
Elysium volcanic region.
Albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...
was first identified from the contrast of bright and dark signals photographed by
Eugène Antoniadi
Eugène Michel Antoniadi (Greek: Ευγένιος Αντωνιάδης; 1 March 1870 – 10 February 1944) was a Greek-French astronomer.
Biography
Antoniadi was born in Istanbul (Constantinople) but spent most of his adult life in France ...
.
Etymology
The mountain range was named in 1985. It has been named after Greek deity of the underworld,
Tartarus
In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...
, by the standard
planetary nomenclature
Planetary nomenclature, like terrestrial nomenclature, is a system of uniquely identifying features on the surface of a planet or natural satellite so that the features can be easily located, described, and discussed. Since the invention of the tel ...
for Martian landforms.
According to Greek myth, Tartarus is the lowest part of
Hades.
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
imprisoned the
Titans in Tartarus. The second part of the name "Montes" means mountains.
Features
Photographs taken by the
Mars Global Surveyor
''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through t ...
indicate that there are cones and volcanic rings near the Tartarus Montes. Narrow grabens and fractures are present around the regions of this mountain range. Both the hilly areas and the intervening plains are cut with similar marks. This implies that there is a widespread tensional fracture system associated with
Cerberus Fossae. At one point, Grjota’ Vallis, an
outflow channel
Outflow channels are extremely long, wide swathes of scoured ground on Mars. They extend many hundreds of kilometers in length and are typically greater than one kilometer in width. They are thought to have been carved by huge outburst floods.
...
, crosses the bedrock ridge of the Tartarus Montes.
See also
*
List of mountains on Mars
This is a list of all named mountains on Mars.
Most mountains have a name including one of the following elements:
* ''Mons'': a large, isolated, mountain.
* ''Montes'', plural of ''mons'': a mountain range.
* ''Tholus'': a small dome-shaped mount ...
References
External links
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
{{Portal bar, Solar System
Mountain ranges on Mars