958
Specialists of the European Space Agency showed a new photo taken by the automatic interplanetary station Mars Express. The picture shows a dark, uneven structure that cuts through the area at the foot of the huge volcano and resembles a "scar".
This structure is called the Aganippa Trench, its length is about 600 kilometers. "Scar" crosses the foot of one of the largest Martian volcanoes - Mount Arsia in the highlands of the Pharsid Province.
The diameter of the base of Mount Arsia is 435 kilometers, it rises above the surrounding plains by more than nine kilometers. For comparison: the highest volcano on Earth, Ojos del Salado on the border of Argentina and Chile, reaches a height of less than seven kilometers.
Researchers do not know how and when the Aganippa Furrow was formed. It may have formed when magma rising beneath the colossal mass of Pharsida volcanoes caused the Martian crust to stretch and crack.
