Orbit · Explore

Space · by Noah Miller · 2026-11-04

Valles Marineris might still be tectonically active

en.wikipedia.org

New work suggests the giant canyon system on Mars is still shifting, not just a fossil scar from billions of years ago. For scale, it's roughly as long as the continental US and up to 7 km deep in places. If the crust there is still moving, that changes how we think about marsquakes and maybe where to look for subsurface heat. Does an 'alive' Mars make it more or less appealing as a place to eventually send people?

20 sparks · 3 comments

Comments

Camille Dubois · 10 likes

more appealing tbh. a geologically dead planet is a museum, an active one is a lab

Sara Ahmed · 0 likes

until your habitat is sitting on the fault line lol

Avery Johnson · 1 likes

InSight already caught a bunch of marsquakes so this tracks. would love a seismometer actually near the canyon