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Space

Mars probe sends back photos of volcano, giant channels

The Mars Global Surveyor's camera obtained this wide-angle view of Olympus Mons on on April 25   

October 15, 1998
Web posted at: 2:45 PM EDT

(CNN) -- NASA's Mars Global Surveyor has captured some spectacular new views of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, and a system of giant channels on the red planet known as Kasei Vallis.

Olympus Mons rises from the martian surface higher than three Mount Everests and spans the width of the entire Hawaiian island chain, according to NASA.

The images of Kasei Vallis, a system of giant channels thought to have been carved by catastrophic floods more than a billion years ago, illustrate the complexity of the planet's geologic history, NASA says.

The images, acquired June 4, reveal details of the 4-mile-diameter (6-kilometer-diameter) crater as it pokes out from beneath an "island" in the valley. The mesa was created in part by the flood and by its subsequent retreat, which caused small landslides of the scarp that encircles it, NASA officials said.

A trench, which partly encircles the crater to the west and south, was formed when the turbulence of the floodwaters interacting with the crater rim eroded material in front of and alongside the crater.

Surveyor has been orbiting Mars for 13 months. When it reaches its final mapping orbit in March 1999, the spacecraft's camera will be used to make daily global maps of martian clouds and weather systems.

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