Athabasca Valles is an outflow channel near the Cerberus Fossae volcanic system in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars. It is one of the youngest large-scale geological features on Mars - estimated to have formed within the last few tens of millions of years, which in geological terms is extremely recent. On Mars, as on Earth, "recent" geology is visible geology.
Two processes, one landscape
Athabasca Valles shows evidence of two distinct geological processes operating in the same region: volcanic activity and catastrophic water release.
The Cerberus Fossae are a system of fissures from which lava erupted, covering large areas of Elysium Planitia in flood basalt. The same fissures also appear to have been the source of catastrophic water release - either from melting of subsurface ice by volcanic heat, or from the pressurised release of a subsurface aquifer.
The HiRISE image shows the resulting landscape: a surface of plates, ridges and fractures that tells a complex story of fire and water. The plated terrain - polygonal blocks of what was once a lava lake, disrupted by the flooding that followed - is one of the more visually striking features on the Martian surface.
Why this matters for Mars science
The youth of Athabasca Valles has implications for the question of present-day Mars. If catastrophic flooding occurred here within the last tens of millions of years, and volcanic activity in the region may have continued even more recently, Mars is not as geologically dead as it was once assumed. The InSight lander, which operated on Elysium Planitia until 2022, detected marsquakes that were subsequently traced to ongoing activity in the Cerberus Fossae region.
The Axisophy print
The HiRISE image of Athabasca Valles captures the plated terrain at a resolution where individual plate boundaries and the fracture patterns between them are clearly visible. The image has a strong graphic quality - the plates read as a structured field of irregular polygons.
