ESA has published new photographs of Noctis Labyrinthus (labyrinth of the night), taken by its Mars Express space probe on July 15, 2015. It’s a mountain range in the western side of Valles Marineris, a huge complex of canyons on the planet Mars, near its equator. Its complex structures were created by the breaking of the crust of the Tharsis region, which caused deep fractures.
In the past there was an intense geological activity in the Tharsis region, where there is the Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system. Other great volcanoes in the area contributed to a significant activity that had strong consequences on the planetary crust of a large area, causing cracks and bulges. The result is a remarkable morphological complexity with tectonic valleys called in jargon grabens, dunes and more to form a labyrinth.
This network of geological features extends for about 1,200 kilometers (about 750 miles), a significant extension yet it seems small compared to the huge canyons of Valles Marineris. The observations of the Mars Express space probe focused on a relatively small part of Noctis Labyrinthus about 120 km (about 75 miles) wide.
The wind gave its contribution to the creation of this region’s complexity. In some areas the slopes appear to be covered by massive deposits formed by the winds. Observing the alignment of certain ridges, the scientists deduced that in those areas the sand was transported down the slopes while in other areas there was an uphill transport of the dune sand.
These structures generated by the wind are no longer active and this can be seen from some of their characteristics. They are evenly covered by red Martian dust while active dunes would be dark gray for the presence of old volcanic dust. The presence of impact craters shows their age because if the dunes were active the sand would quickly fill the craters. The craters amount and size can be measured to determine the age of the dunes and those in the area indicate that they’re relatively young.
This study of Noctis Labyrinthus is a continuation of the research about the area around the huge Valles Marineris. Last year, the analysis of areas such as the one called Aurorae Chaos aimed above all at reconstructing the history of the presence of water on Mars. This time the interest is more focused on geological activities such as earthquakes and volcanism but in the end the aim is always to improve our knowledge of the Red Planet’s history with its geological and also ecological transformations.
