This image was acquired at the Viking Lander 1 site in Chryse Planitia. It has been reproduced as a false color image.
Feature type
Plains
Location
North of Margaritifer Terra, south of Acidalia Planitia, west of Arabia Terra
Coordinates
28°24′N319°42′E / 28.4°N 319.7°E / 28.4; 319.7
Diameter
1,600 kilometres (990 mi)
Eponym
Legendary island Chryse
Chryse Planitia/ˈkraɪsiːpləˈnɪʃiə/ (Greek, "Golden Plain") is a smooth circular plain in the northern equatorial region of Mars close to the Tharsis region to the west, centered at 28°24′N319°42′E / 28.4°N 319.7°E / 28.4; 319.7.[1] Chryse Planitia lies partially in the Lunae Palus quadrangle, partially in the Oxia Palus quadrangle, partially in the Mare Acidalium quadrangle. It is 1600 km or 994 mi in diameter and with a floor 2.5 km below the average planetary surface altitude, and has been suggested to be an ancient buried impact basin, though this is contested.[2] It has several features in common with lunar maria, such as wrinkle ridges. The density of impact craters in the 100 to 2,000 metres (330 to 6,560 ft) range is close to half the average for lunar maria.
Chryse Planitia shows evidence of water erosion in the past, and is the bottom end for many outflow channels from the southern highlands as well as from Valles Marineris and the flanks of the Tharsis bulge. It is one of the lowest regions on Mars (2 to 3 kilometres (1.2 to 1.9 mi) below the mean surface elevation of Mars), so water would tend to flow into it
[3]
The elevation generally goes down from the Tharsis Ridge to Chryse. Kasei Valles, Maja Valles, and Nanedi Valles
appear to run from high areas (Tharsis Ridge) to Chryse Planitia. On the other side of Chryse, to the east, the land gets higher. Ares Vallis travels from this high region, then empties into Chryse. Much of Tiu Valles and Simud Valles move toward Chryse as well.[4]
Several ancient river valleys discovered in Chryse Planitia by the Viking Orbiters, as part of the Viking program, provided strong evidence for a great deal of running water on the surface of Mars.[5][6][7]
Chryse Planitia Map Relative
Waters from Vedra Valles, Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles went from Lunae Planum on the left, to Chryse Planitia on the right. Image is located in Lunae Palus quadrangle and was taken by Viking Orbiter.
Area around Northern Kasei Valles, showing relationships among Kasei Valles, Bahram Vallis, Vedra Valles, Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles. Map location is in Lunae Palus quadrangle and includes parts of Lunae Planum and Chryse Planitia. These river valleys once carried water to Chryse Planitia, a low area.
Map showing relative positions of a number of features in and near Chryse Planitia, including Vedra Valles, Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles. Box indicates where these valleys can be found. The Viking 1 landing site is indicated. Colors show elevation.
Ares Vallis, capture by Viking and edited as a false color image. The channel is 25 km wide and about 1 km deep. It would be quite spectacular to walk down this valley.
It has been theorized that the Chryse basin may have contained a large lake or an ocean during the Hesperian or early Amazonian periods since all of the large outflow channels entering it end at the same elevation, at which some surface features suggest an ancient shoreline may be present. Chryse basin opens into the North Polar Basin, so if an ocean was present Chryse would have been a large bay.
Viking 1 landed in Chryse Planitia in 1976, but its landing site was not near the outflow channels and no fluvial features were visible; the terrain at that point appeared primarily volcanic in origin. The Mars Pathfinder landed in Ares Vallis, at the end of one of the outflow channels emptying into Chryse.
^"Chryse Planitia". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
^Pan, Lu; Quantin-Nataf, Cathy; Breton, Sylvain; Michaut, Chloé (September 18, 2019). "The impact origin and evolution of Chryse Planitia on Mars revealed by buried craters". Nature Communications. 10 (1): 4257. Bibcode:2019NatCo..10.4257P. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12162-0. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6751168. PMID 31534129. S2CID 202641081.
^Czechowski, L., et al., 2023. The formation of cone chains in the Chryse Planitia region on Mars 771 and the thermodynamic aspects of this process. Icarus, 772 doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115473
^Victor R. Baker.1982.The Channels of Mars, ISBN 0-292-71068-2
^Strom, R.G., Steven K. Croft, and Nadine G. Barlow, "The Martian Impact Cratering Record," Mars, University of Arizona Press, ISBN 0-8165-1257-4
^Raeburn, P. 1998. Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet Mars. National Geographic Society. Washington D.C.
^Moore, P. et al. 1990. The Atlas of the Solar System. Mitchell Beazley Publishers NY, NY.
ChrysePlanitia /ˈkraɪsiː pləˈnɪʃiə/ (Greek, "Golden Plain") is a smooth circular plain in the northern equatorial region of Mars close to the Tharsis...
Chryse, Greek name for Aurea of Ostia (died mid-3rd century), Christian martyr and saint in the Roman Empire ChrysePlanitia, a plain on Mars Chryse,...
channel region containing chaotic terrain that ends in the basin of ChrysePlanitia. It has been recently suggested that Valles Marineris is a large tectonic...
and named, are noted in parentheses and in italics after each entry. ChrysePlanitia is a roughly circular volcanic plain east of the Tharsis bulge and...
The lander separated from the orbiter at 08:51 UTC and landed at ChrysePlanitia at 11:53:06 UTC. It was the first attempt by the United States at landing...
light windblown dust. Chryse is really a low flat plain, but the name has been kept and it is now known as ChrysePlanitia, "Chryse Plain". Argyre (like...
point: 109.7 E, 25.1 N, less than 40 km from target location in Utopia Planitia. More details expected later!" (Tweet). Retrieved 2021-05-15 – via Twitter...
The Chryse Alien is a crater in the ChrysePlanitia on Mars, named because of its resemblance to an "alien head". The crater is in a 712x935 image indexed...
MC-10 (Mars Chart-10). Lunae Planum and parts of Xanthe Terra and ChrysePlanitia are found in the Lunae Palus quadrangle. The Lunae Palus quadrangle...
higher elevations). It roughly extends from Amazonis Planitia (215°E) in the west to ChrysePlanitia (300°E) in the east. The bulge is slightly elongated...
ancient Xanthe Terra highlands, and ends in a delta-like region of ChrysePlanitia. Ares Vallis was the landing site of NASA's Mars Pathfinder spacecraft...
planetary nomenclature. Plains may be named denoted "planitia" or "planum", depending on height. Planitia (plural: planitiae) is Latin for plain. It is the...
'continents' and given names like Arabia Terra (land of Arabia) or Amazonis Planitia (Amazonian plain). The dark features were thought to be seas, hence their...
Martin Kennedy) Released: February 2019 Label: Steve Kilbey Format: DD ChrysePlanitia (with Gareth Koch) Released: December 2019 Label: Steve Kilbey, Foghorn...
Piotr; Kotlarz, Jan (2023). "The formation of cone chains in the ChrysePlanitia region on Mars and the thermodynamic aspects of this process". Icarus...
Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles flowed from Lunae Planum on the left, to ChrysePlanitia on the right. Image is located in Lunae Palus quadrangle and was taken...
deployed by pyrotechnic release mechanisms. MARSIS FINDS BURIED BASINS IN CHRYSEPLANITIA Dec 2006 Buried Basins Discovered by Radar Undated Calabrese, D. (2003-12-16)...
boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands near ChrysePlanitia. It is the largest proposed delta system on Mars. A location in the...
been partially buried by thin volcanic debris. The channels end at ChrysePlanitia. Huge outflow channels were found in many areas by the Viking Orbiters...
craters, once comprised a single outflow channel flowing north into ChrysePlanitia. The source of this outflow has been suggested as overflow from the...
boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands near ChrysePlanitia. Research published in 2012 using data from MARSIS, a radar on board...
full size from the chaotic terrain and empty (debouch) northward into ChrysePlanitia. The presence of streamlined islands and other geomorphic features...
Argyre Planitia /ˈɑːrdʒəriː/ is a plain located within the impact basin Argyre in the southern highlands of Mars. Its name comes from a map produced by...
these tsunami events. The parts of Mars studied in this research are ChrysePlanitia and northwestern Arabia Terra. These tsunamis affected some surfaces...
Global Information
Chryse Planitia Map Relative
Waters from Vedra Valles, Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles went from Lunae Planum on the left, to Chryse Planitia on the right. Image is located in Lunae Palus quadrangle and was taken by Viking Orbiter.
Area around Northern Kasei Valles, showing relationships among Kasei Valles, Bahram Vallis, Vedra Valles, Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles. Map location is in Lunae Palus quadrangle and includes parts of Lunae Planum and Chryse Planitia. These river valleys once carried water to Chryse Planitia, a low area.
Map showing relative positions of a number of features in and near Chryse Planitia, including Vedra Valles, Maumee Valles, and Maja Valles. Box indicates where these valleys can be found. The Viking 1 landing site is indicated. Colors show elevation.
Ares Vallis, capture by Viking and edited as a false color image. The channel is 25 km wide and about 1 km deep. It would be quite spectacular to walk down this valley.
