Eridania_Lake
Eridania Lake
Theorized ancient lake on Mars
Eridania Lake is a theorized ancient lake on Mars with a surface area of roughly 1.1 million square kilometers. It is located at the source of the Ma'adim Vallis outflow channel and extends into Eridania quadrangle and the Phaethontis quadrangle.[1] As Eridania Lake dried out in the late Noachian epoch it divided into a series of smaller lakes.[2][3][4][5]
- Map showing estimated water depth in different parts of Eridania Sea This map is about 850 km (530 miles) across.
- Features around Eridania Sea labeled
Later research with CRISM found thick deposits, greater than 400 meters thick, that contained the minerals saponite, talc-saponite, Fe-rich mica (for example, glauconite-nontronite), Fe- and Mg-serpentine, Mg-Fe-Ca-carbonate and probable Fe-sulphide. The Fe-sulphide probably formed in deep water from water heated by volcanoes. Such a process, classified as hydrothermal may have been a place where life began.[6]
- Deep-basin deposits from the floor of Eridania Sea. The mesas on the floor are there because they were protected against intense erosion by deep water/ice cover. CRISM measurements show minerals may be from seafloor hydrothermal deposits. Life may have originated in this sea.
- Diagram showing how volcanic activity may have caused deposition of minerals on floor of Eridania Sea. Chlorides were deposited along the shoreline by evaporation.