GENERAL GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The most likely geologic process to form the channel on Mars is continental drift, the same process that forms modern channels like the mid-Atlantic channel or the African Rift Valley. As the continental plates of Mars pull apart, they open up massive valleys that can be seen from space.

Detailed explanation-2: -Outflow Channels and Valley Networks. There are two specific types of water-related geological features that appear in several areas on Mars’s surface-outflow channels and valley networks.

Detailed explanation-3: -We have considered satellite and aerial images of Earth showing landforms created by flowing lava and flowing water to see if these landforms were similar to the channel on Mars. These images gave us some evidence about what geologic process might have formed the channel.

Detailed explanation-4: -› Larger image Flowing lava can carve or build paths very much like the riverbeds and canyons etched by water, and this probably explains at least one of the meandering channels on the surface of Mars.