Candor Chasma is one of the largest canyon

Canyon

A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

s in the Valles Marineris

Valles Marineris

Valles Marineris is a system of canyons that runs along the Martian surface east of the Tharsis region...

 canyon system on Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

. The feature is geographically divided into two halves: East and West Candor Chasmas, respectively. It is unclear how the canyon originally formed; one theory is that it was expanded and deepened by tectonic processes similar to a graben

Graben

In geology, a graben is a depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. Graben is German for ditch. Graben is used for both the singular and plural....

, while another suggests that it was formed by subsurface water erosion similar to a karst

KARST

Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...

. MRO

MRO

-Operations:* maintenance, repair, and operations -Companies:...

discovered sulfates, hydrated sulfates, and iron oxides in Candor Chasma.

External links

• Flying around Candor Chasma at an altitude of 100 meters
• HiRISE observation of tectonic fractures