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The North Polar Basin, more commonly known as the Borealis Basin, is a large basin in the northern hemisphere of Mars that covers 40% of the planet. [1] [2] Some scientists have postulated that the basin formed during the impact of a single, large body roughly 2% of the mass of Mars, having a diameter of about 1,900 km (1,200 miles) early in the history of Mars, around 4.5 billion years ago.
One additional large basin, Utopia, is completely buried by northern plains deposits. Its outline is clearly discernable only from altimetry data. All of the large basins on Mars are extremely old, dating to the late heavy bombardment. They are thought to be comparable in age to the Imbrium and Orientale basins on the Moon.
The large basin is surrounded by heavily cratered highlands. The Argyre quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Argyre quadrangle is also referred to as MC-26 (Mars Chart-26). [1] It contains Argyre Planitia and part of Noachis Terra.
The basin is located in the southern highlands of Mars and is thought to have been formed about 3.9 billion years ago, during the Late Heavy Bombardment. Studies suggest that when an impact created the Hellas Basin, the entire surface of Mars was heated hundreds of degrees, 70 meters of molted rock fell on the planet, and an atmosphere of ...
The basin is approximately 1,700 km (1,100 mi) wide [1] and drops 5.2 km (17,000 ft) below the surrounding plains; it is the second-deepest impact basin on Mars after Hellas. The crater Galle , located on the east rim of Argyre at 51°S 31°W / 51°S 31°W / -51; -31 , strongly resembles a smiley
Isidis Planitia is a plain located within a giant impact basin on Mars, located partly in the Syrtis Major quadrangle and partly in the Amenthes quadrangle.At approximately 1,900 km (1,200 mi) in diameter, [1] it is the third-largest confirmed impact structure on the planet, after the Hellas and Utopia basins.
Due to the later deposits on Mars, however, in almost all cases it is unclear whether the valley floors contain individual channel structures or whether they are fully inundated in flow events. Nanedi Valles is a rare example where a channel has been identified, [ 3 ] though new higher resolution imagery again continues to reveal more such ...
Frosted terrain on Utopia Planitia, taken by the Viking 2 lander in 1979. Utopia Planitia (Greek and Latin: "Utopia Land Plain") is a large plain [2] within Utopia, the largest recognized impact basin on Mars [a] and in the Solar System with an estimated diameter of 3,300 km (2,100 mi). [1]