Osuga valles

The central portion of Osuga Valles, which has a total length of 164 km. In some places, it is 20 km wide and plunges to a depth of 900 m. It is located approximately 170 km south of Eos Chaos, which is located at the periphery in the far eastern portion of the vast Valles Marineris canyon system.

Catastrophic flooding is thought to have created the heavily eroded Osuga Valles, which displays streamlined islands and a grooved floor carved by fast-flowing water. The water flowed in a northeasterly direction (towards the bottom right in this image) and eventually drained into another region of chaotic terrain, just seen at the bottom of the image.

Several large impact craters are also seen in this scene, including the ghostly outline of an ancient, partially buried crater in the bottom centre of the image.

The image was created using data acquired with the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express on 7 December 2013 during orbit 12 624. The image resolution is about 17 m per pixel and the image centre is at about 15ºS / 322ºE.