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Fossa (geology)
In planetary nomenclature, a fossa (pl. fossae ) is a long, narrow depression (trough) on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, such as a planet or moon. The term, which means "ditch" or "trench" in Latin, is not a geological term as such but a descriptor term used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) for topographic features whose geology or geomorphology is uncertain due to lack of data or knowledge of the exact processes that formed them. Fossae are believed to be the result of a number of geological processes, such as geological fault, faulting or subsidence. Many fossae on Mars are probably graben. On Mars The Tharsis quadrangle is home to large troughs (long narrow depressions) called fossae in the geographical language used for Mars. This term is derived from Latin; therefore fossa is singular and fossae is plural. Troughs form when the crust is stretched until it breaks. The stretching can be due to the larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 telescope, astronomers have given names to the surface features they have discerned, especially on the Moon and Mars. To found an authority on planetary nomenclature, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) was organized in 1919 to designate and standardize names for features on Solar System bodies. IAU approval procedure When images are first obtained of the surface of a planet or satellite, a theme for naming features is chosen and a few important features are named, usually by members of the appropriate IAU task group (a commonly accepted planet-naming group). Later, as higher resolution images and maps become available, additional features are named at the request of investigators mapping or describing specific surfaces, fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its summit. Its height was most recently measured in 2020 by Chinese and Nepali authorities as . Mount Everest attracts many climbers, including highly experienced mountaineers. There are two main climbing routes, one approaching the summit from the southeast in Nepal (known as the standard route) and the other from the north in Tibet. While not posing substantial technical climbing challenges on the standard route, Everest presents dangers such as altitude sickness, weather, and wind, as well as hazards from avalanches and the Khumbu Icefall. As of May 2024, 340 people have died on Everest. Over 200 bodies remain on the mountain and have not been removed due to the dangerous conditions. Climbers typically ascend only part of Mount Eve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elysium Quadrangle
The Elysium quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Elysium quadrangle is also referred to as MC-15 (Mars Chart-15). The name Elysium refers to a place of reward (Heaven), according to Homer in the Odyssey. The Elysium quadrangle covers the area between 180° to 225° west longitude and 0° to 30° north latitude on Mars. The northern part of Elysium Planitia, a broad plain, is in this quadrangle. The Elysium quadrangle includes a part of Lucus Planum. A small part of the Medusae Fossae Formation lies in this quadrangle. The largest craters in this quadrangle are Eddie, Lockyer, and Tombaugh. The quadrangle contains the major volcanoes Elysium Mons and Albor Tholus, part of a volcanic province of the same name, as well as river valleys—one of which, Athabasca Valles may be one of the youngest on Mars. On the east side is an elongated depression called Orcus Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tantalus Fossae
Tantalus Fossae is a group of troughs in the Arcadia quadrangle of Mars, located at 50.9° north latitude and 97.5° west longitude. They are about 2,400 km long and was named after an albedo feature at 35N, 110W. Troughs like this one are called fossae on Mars. Image:Tantalus Fossae.JPG, Tantalus Fossae, as seen by HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the '' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction .... Click on image to see dust devil tracks. References Valleys and canyons on Mars Arcadia quadrangle {{Mars-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mareotis Fossae
Mareotis Fossae is a group of fossae (troughs) in the Arcadia quadrangle of Mars, located at 44° north latitude and 75.3° west longitude. It is about 1,860 km long and was named after an albedo feature at 32N, 96W. Image:Mareotis Fossae Region.JPG, Mareotis Fossae Region, as seen by HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the '' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction .... References Valleys and canyons on Mars Arcadia quadrangle {{Mars-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
THEMIS
In Greek mythology and religion, Themis (; ) is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, law, and custom. She is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is associated with oracles and prophecies, including the Oracle of Delphi. Name ''Themis'' means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the Greek verb ''títhēmi'' ( τίθημι), meaning "to put." To the ancient Greeks she was originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies." Moses Finley remarked of ''themis'', as the word was used by Homer in the 8th century BCE, to evoke the social order of the 10th- and 9th-century Greek Dark Ages: Finley adds, "There was ''themis''—custom, tradition, folk-ways, ''mores'', whatever we may call it, the enormous power of 'it is (or is not) done'." In the ''Hymn to Apollo'', Themis is referred to as " Ichnaea", meaning "Tracker". Descr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volcanoes
A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging, and because most of Earth's plate boundaries are underwater, most volcanoes are found underwater. For example, a mid-ocean ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates. Volcanoes resulting from divergent tectonic activity are usually non-explosive whereas those resulting from convergent tectonic activity cause violent eruptions."Mid-ocean ridge tectonics, volcanism and geomorphology." Geology 26, no. 455 (2001): 458. https://macdonald.faculty.geol.ucsb.edu/papers/Macdonald%20Mid-Ocean%20Ridge%20Tectonics.pdf Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 'trench'. The first known usage of the word in the geologic context was by Eduard Suess in 1883. The plural form is either ''graben'' or ''grabens''. Formation A graben is a valley with a distinct escarpment on each side caused by the displacement of a block of land downward. Graben often occur side by side with Horst (geology), horsts. Horst and graben structures indicate tensional forces and crustal stretching. Graben are produced by sets of normal faults that have parallel fault traces, where the displacement of the hanging wall is downward, while that of the footwall is upward. The faults typically dip toward the center of the graben from both sides. Horsts are parallel blocks that remain between graben; the bounding faults of a horst t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alba Patera
Alba Mons (formerly and still occasionally known as Alba Patera, a term that has since been restricted to the volcano's summit caldera; also initially known as the Arcadia ring) is a volcano located in the northern Tharsis region of the planet Mars. It is the biggest volcano on Mars in terms of surface area, with volcanic flow fields that extend for at least from its summit.Cattermole, 2001, p. 85. Although the volcano has a span comparable to that of the United States, it reaches an elevation of only at its highest point.Carr, 2006, p. 54. This is about one-third the height of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano on the planet. The flanks of Alba Mons have very gentle slopes. The average slope along the volcano's northern (and steepest) flank is 0.5°, which is over five times lower than the slopes on the other large Tharsis volcanoes. In broad profile, Alba Mons resembles a vast but barely raised welt on the planet's surface. It is a unique volcanic structure with no counterpart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcadia Quadrangle
The Arcadia 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 located in the north-central portion of Mars’ western hemisphere and covers 240° to 300° east longitude (60° to 120° west longitude) and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Arcadia quadrangle is also referred to as MC-3 (Mars Chart-3). The name comes from a mountainous region in southern Greece. It was adopted by IAU, in 1958. The southern and northern borders of the Arcadia quadrangle are approximately 3,065 km and 1,500 km wide, respectively. The north to south distance is about 2,050 km (slightly less than the length of Greenland). The quadrangle covers an approximate area of 4.9 million square km, or a little over 3% of Mars’ surface a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olympica Fossae
The Olympica Fossae are a set of troughs in the Tharsis quadrangle of Mars at 25° north latitude and 114.1° west longitude. They are about 420 km long and were named after an albedo feature at 17N, 134W. Parts of the fossae have been suggested to be both outflow channels as well as channels for flowing lava, routing both molten rock and catastrophic outburst floods of water at different times in Mars' geological past. Fossa The Olympica Fossae are a large set of troughs, called fossae in the geographical language used for Mars. Troughs form when the crust is stretched until it breaks along two subparallel failure planes, or faults. The middle section between the faults moves down, forming the trough and leaving steep cliffs along the sides. Sometimes, a line of pits form as material collapse into a void that forms from the stretching. Such fault-bounded geological structures are also called graben. Dark slope streaks A picture below shows dark streaks on the Olympic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceraunius Fossae
The Ceraunius Fossae are a set of fractures in the northern Tharsis region of Mars. They lie directly south of the large volcano Alba Mons and consist of numerous parallel faults and tension cracks that deform the ancient highland crust.Carr, M.H. (2006). ''The Surface of Mars;'' Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, p. 87. . In places, younger lava flows cover the fractured terrain, dividing it into several large patches or islands.Raitala, J. (1988). Composite Graben Tectonics of Alba Patera on Mars. ''Earth, Moon, and Planets,'' 42, 277–291. They are found in the Tharsis quadrangle. The faults are mainly narrow, north-south oriented graben. Graben (the name is both singular and plural) are long, narrow troughs bound by two inward-facing normal faults that enclose a downfaulted block of crust. The graben in the Ceraunius Fossae are commonly several kilometers wide, between 100 and slightly over 1000 m deep, and very closely spaced, giving the terrain a rugged ridg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
