Xanthe Terra is a large area on Mars, centered just north of the Martian equator. Its coordinates are 3°N 312°E / 3°N 312°E / 3; 312Coordinates: 3°N 312°E / 3°N 312°E / 3; 312 and it covers 2465 km at its broadest extent. Its name means "golden-yellow land." It is in the Lunae Palus quadrangle and the Oxia Palus quadrangle. Images from Mars Express, Mars Global Surveyor, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed ancient river valleys and deltas. The deltas show many thin layers just as deltas on Earth. Scientists speculate that features in Xanthe Terra show evidence of precipitation on early Mars.
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Alluvial Fans in Mojave Crater, as seen by HiRISE. High ground is on the right. Branched network of channels runs from higher ground (crater rim) to lower ground.
Famous quotes containing the word terra:
“While the very inhabitants of New England were thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a terra incognita to them,... Champlain, the first Governor of Canada,... had already gone to war against the Iroquois in their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)