Mars

Mars Orbital Recon: The Upstream Edge Of A Crater in Athabasca Valles

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
NASA
March 9, 2026
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Mars Orbital Recon: The Upstream Edge Of A Crater in Athabasca Valles
ID: ESP_076652_1885 date: 3 December 2022 altitude: 276 km larger imagery NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

This observation should provide us a closer look at lava-topography interactions in this area.

Athabasca Valles is a young outflow channel system on Mars that may have been carved by catastrophic water floods.

Other HiRISE images reveal that Athabasca Valles is now entirely draped by a thin layer of solidified lava, the remnant of a once-swollen river of molten rock.

Astrobiology, Astrogeology,

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻