Subsurface Flood Carved Mars' 1,300-km Shalbatana Vallis in 1 Catastrophic Event

5 articles · Updated · Universe Today · May 14

Shalbatana Vallis was gouged about 3.5 billion years ago by a single, rapid outburst of pressurized subsurface water or ice, not by a long-lived river system.
ESA's Mars Express images show the 1,300-km channel starts in collapsed chaos terrain near Orson Welles crater, supporting a scenario in which overlying ground gave way as buried water erupted.
Scientists say geothermal heat may have kept the water liquid underground, with a massive impact among the possible triggers for the sudden release; winds later partly filled the channel.
Shalbatana Vallis ends in Chryse Planitia, where several major outflow channels converge, reinforcing the idea that the region may once have held an ocean on a warmer, wetter Mars.

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