Terra Cimmeria

Terra Cimmeria is a large Martian region, centered at and covering 5400km at its broadest extent. It covers latitudes 15 N to 75 S and longitudes 170 to 260 W. It lies in the Eridania quadrangle. Terra Cimmeria is one part of the heavily cratered, southern highland region of the planet. The Spirit rover landed near the area. The word Cimmerium comes from an ancient Thracian seafaring people. The land was always covered in clouds and mist. A high altitude visual phenomena, probably a condensation cloud, was seen above this region in late March 2012. NASA tried to observe it with some of its Mars orbiters, including the THEMIS instrument on the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft and MARCI on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Martian GulliesTerra Cimmeria is the location of gullies that may be due to recent flowing water. Gullies occur on steep slopes, especially on the walls of craters. Gullies are believed to be relatively young because they have few, if any craters. Moreover, they lie on top of sand dunes which themselves are considered to be quite young. Usually, each gully has an alcove, channel, and apron. Some studies have found that gullies occur on slopes that face all directions, others have found that the greater number of gullies are found on poleward facing slopes, especially from 30-44 S. Although many ideas have been put forward to explain them, the most popular involve liquid water coming from an aquifer, from melting at the base of old glaciers, or from the melting of ice in the ground when the climate was warmer. Because of the good possibility that liquid water was involved with their formation and that they could be very young, scientists are excited. Maybe the gullies are where we should go to find life.

Terra Cimmeria is a large Martian region, centered at and covering 5400km at its broadest extent. It covers latitudes 15 N to 75 S and longitudes 170 to 260 W. It lies in the Eridania quadrangle. Terra Cimmeria is one part of the heavily cratered, southern highland region of the planet. The Spirit rover landed near the area. The word Cimmerium comes from an ancient Thracian seafaring people. The land was always covered in clouds and mist. A high altitude visual phenomena, probably a condensation cloud, was seen above this region in late March 2012. NASA tried to observe it with some of its Mars orbiters, including the THEMIS instrument on the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft and MARCI on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Martian GulliesTerra Cimmeria is the location of gullies that may be due to recent flowing water. Gullies occur on steep slopes, especially on the walls of craters. Gullies are believed to be relatively young because they have few, if any craters. Moreover, they lie on top of sand dunes which themselves are considered to be quite young. Usually, each gully has an alcove, channel, and apron. Some studies have found that gullies occur on slopes that face all directions, others have found that the greater number of gullies are found on poleward facing slopes, especially from 30-44 S. Although many ideas have been put forward to explain them, the most popular involve liquid water coming from an aquifer, from melting at the base of old glaciers, or from the melting of ice in the ground when the climate was warmer. Because of the good possibility that liquid water was involved with their formation and that they could be very young, scientists are excited. Maybe the gullies are where we should go to find life.