Valles Marineris

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The Solar System's largest canyon, Valles Marineris, carves a massive path across the surface of Mars. This incredible valley stretches an impressive 3,000 kilometers long, measures up to 600 kilometers wide, and plunges as deep as 8 kilometers into the Martian crust. For comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is significantly smaller at 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers wide, and a mere 1.8 kilometers deep. Despite extensive research, the origin of Valles Marineris remains a mystery, although scientists have proposed a leading theory that it began as a massive crack billions of years ago when Mars was still cooling down. Recently, geologists have identified several key processes that shaped this canyon over time. The stunning mosaic above is composed of more than 100 images taken by the Viking Orbiters in the 1970s.