History Of The Earth

In today's episode we’re going to space. Specifically, Mars. You didn’t really think that earth science is really limited to the earth, did you? Our topic today will be the Valles Marineris.The Valles Marineris is a long series of canyons east of Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system. These canyons are about 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and up to 7 km (23,000 ft) deep. On terrestrial scales, the Valles Marineris is as long as the distance from New York to Los Angeles. That’s about the same as Beijing to Hong Kong or Madrid to Copenhagen for our international listeners. They are as wide as central Florida, central Italy, or the middle of the Korean peninsula. Two and a half times deeper than Death Valley, though only about 60 percent of the depth of the Marianas Trench, the lowest point on earth.Valles Marineris Image Courtesy NASA/JPL-CaltechNot to be outdone, our planet, Earth, has even bigger valleys. These occur at the oceanic ridges, where plate spreading takes place. The longest rift