Kasei Valles

Kasei Valles (Valley of Mars - Kasei is the Japanese name for Mars ), with a length of almost 2500 km, the largest river valley on the planet Mars.

It begins in a " chaotic " region north of Valles Marineris grave system, runs north and is divided into several branches, which open into the western part of the Chryse Planitia lowlands. Due to the large bend of the east fork into a northern and a southern arm of the plural form of a valley system is chosen for the name of this valley. However, the individual arms bear no name in his case.

Kasei Valles was probably in a period from 3.5 to 1.5 billion years ago by intermittent large amounts of water made ​​their way. Based on the structures of the valley is estimated that there flowed up to 1 billion cubic meters per second - the equivalent of 10,000 times the amount of the Amazon on earth. The mass of water released by melting processes, with lying under the surface of Mars ice was heated by tectonic processes.

View of streamlined landforms in Kasei Valles (detail from THEMIS mosaic to the left).

• Surface structure on Mars