Medusae Fossae Formation

Medusa Fossae
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Part of Medusae Fossae, from a THEMIS day-time image
Coordinates3°12′S 163°00′W / 3.2°S 163.0°W / -3.2; -163.0
Length5,000 km

The Medusae Fossae Formation is a large geological formation of probable volcanic origin on the planet Mars.[1] It is named for the Medusa of Greek mythology. "Fossae" is Latin for "trenches". The formation is a collection of soft, easily eroded deposits that extends discontinuously for more than 5,000 km along the equator of Mars. Its roughly-shaped regions extend from just south of Olympus Mons to Apollinaris Patera, with a smaller additional region closer to Gale Crater.[2]

The total area of the formation is equal to 20% the size of the continental United States.[3] It is divided into three subunits (members) that are all considered to be of Amazonian age, the youngest era in martian geological history.[4] The formation straddles the highland - lowland boundary near the Tharsis and Elysium volcanic areas, and extends across five quadrangles: Amazonis, Tharsis, Memnonia, Elysium, and Aeolis.

  1. ^ "The Medusa Fossae formation on Mars". European Space Agency. 29 March 2005.
  2. ^ Lujendra Ojha; Kevin Lewis; Suniti Karunatillake; Mariek Schmidt (July 20, 2018). "Fig. 1, The Medusae Fossae Formation as the single largest source of dust on Mars". Nature Communications. ISSN 2041-1723.
  3. ^ Ojha, Lujendra; Lewis, Kevin; Karunatillake, Suniti; Schmidt, Mariek (2018). "The Medusae Fossae Formation as the single largest source of dust on Mars". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 2867. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.2867O. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05291-5. PMC 6054634. PMID 30030425.
  4. ^ Greeley, Ronald; Guest, J.E. (1987). Geologic map of the eastern equatorial region of Mars. U.S. Geological Survey (Report). CiteSeerX 10.1.1.457.7583. doi:10.3133/i1802B.