HiRISE: Ancient streamlined islands of the Palos outflow channel

ESP_045782_1820This image shows the northern terminus of an outflow channel located in the volcanic terrains of Amenthes Planum.

The channel sources from the Palos impact crater to the south, where water flowed into the crater from Tinto Vallis and eventually formed a paleo lake. As rising lake levels breached through the crater’s rim and inundated the plains to the north, the resulting high velocity, large discharge floods plucked out and eroded the volcanic plains scouring out the “Palos Outflow Channel” and the streamlined mesa-islands on its floor. [More at link]


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