Water On Mars

Above you can see the scarred and eroded channels on the west side of great Valles Marineris canyon. Did this canyon once hold water? Were the channels part of an ancient water system? Or are they just a part of an intricate set of faults? When Mars' geological activity ceased, several billion years ago, did the water disappear too? Today no one really knows the answer to these questions. If we started to terraform Mars these river beds would again flow with water.

Shorelines

Some scientist believe features like this show the shorelines of ancient sea's and oceans. These shorelines are at the mouth of the huge Valles Marineris canyon which is seen on the bottom of the image on the left. On either side of Valles Marineris there are signs of ancient river beds. There are shorelines around high ground creating island-like features. These are all key signatures of the presence of water when Mars' climate was much like Earth's. Imagine the abundance of sea life that could have lived there.

Rivers

This is an image of an eroded river basin extending out from a believed coast line in Chryse Planatia. This image shows that over millions of years the land was cut up by this river and its tributaries. When the Mars Pathfinder project crew needed to find a possible landing site to land their craft they chose the mouth of this former river basin. It is in a river basin that one may be able to find fossils.