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Polar Chasms (Mars)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Large, deep valleys arranged along spiral trends on the northern and southern polar cap of Mars.

Description

The largest of these spiral valleys in the north is a broad reentrant valley, Chasma Boreale featuring 560 km length, 200 km width, 0.5 km depth. Unlike polar spiral troughs around it, Chasma Boreale curves in the opposite direction and widens along its length (Fishbaugh and Head 2002; Fig. 1). Chasma Australe is a though 500 km in length, 80–20 km in width and 1 km deep (Anguita et al. 2000; Fig. 2). The central bottom part of these chasmata display aeolian yardangs and arcuate scarps (Howard 2000). Both chasmata and troughs have asymmetric wall slopes. Chasms usually widen towards their distal end.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Chasma Boreale scarp. Scale bar 1 km. HiRISE ESP_018859_2645 at 84.5°N 343.2°E (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

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  1. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Hargitai, H. (2014). Polar Chasms (Mars). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_298-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_298-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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