This 932-mile-long (1500 kilometer) river is running from the Promethei Terra Highlands to the vast Hellas Basin. This river is massive. At some points the river is 4.3 miles wide and 989 feet deep. The Nile River in Egypt is 4,132 miles long, 2 miles wide, and 33 feet at its deepest. Why is this river so relevant and important?
It's was on Mars.
Planetary scientists at the European Space Agency have released 3D images of this river in the upper parts of the Reull Vallis region of Mars. The stereo cameras aboard the satellite have also revealed numerous tributaries that fed the gigantic river. On the right-hand side of the the image above you can see the Promethei Terra Highlands' mountains with a peak of 8,202 feet above the surrounding flat plains.
During the Hesperian period, about 1.8 to 3.5 billion years ago, the ESA Mars Express team says that the river was flowing with an abundance of water. After that, the Amazonian era started, causing the Reull Vallis to be invaded by a glacier. This glacier carved the valley where the river was, pushing debris and ice, and causing the sharp sides you can see in these images.
Together with all the data gathered by NASA and ESA robots and probes, it looks very much as though Mars suffered the same geological process we had here on our home planet of Earth:
These analogies are giving planetary geologists tantalising glimpses of a past on the Red Planet not too dissimilar to events on our own world today.
The researchers think that Reull Vallis is just like any glacial valley on Earth—like the one you can see in Yosemite, but without trees and tourists. At one point, Mars may have very well looked like this:
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| Top View with Natural Colours. |
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| Perspective View with Natural Colours. |
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| Arrows Point to the River and One of its Tributaries. |
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| If You Have Stereo Anaglyphic Glasses You Can See the 3D |
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