Nereidum Montes

The Nereidum Montes is a mountain range on Mars. It stretches 3,677 km, northeast of Argyre Planitia.

There is a crater at 45.1°S, 55.0°W on the Nereidum Montes that is similar to Galle in that it also has a smiley face pattern on the crater. However, it is much smaller than Galle itself.

Gullies

Gullies are common in some latitude bands on Mars. Usually, gullies are found on the walls of craters or troughs, but Nereidum Montes has gullies in some areas. See the image below. Gullies occur on steep slopes, especially craters. Gullies are believed to be relatively young because they have few, if any craters, and they lie on top of sand dunes which are young. Usually, each gully has an alcove, channel, and apron. Although many ideas have been put forward to explain them, the most popular involve liquid water either coming from an aquifer or left over from old glaciers.^[1]

Gullies on a massif in the Nereidum Montes, as seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's CTX.
Surface in Argyre quadrangle as seen by HiRISE, under the HiWish program. Image is located in Nereidum Montes. This is the image of the surface from a single HiRISE image. The scale bar at the top is 500 meters long.
CTX image showing context for the next image. A group of channels are visible in this image. Image is located in Nereidum Montes.
Close-up of surface in Argyre quadrangle, as seen by HiRISE, under the HiWish program. Image is located in Nereidum Montes.
Gullies in Nereidum Montes, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program.

Gallery

Layers exposed in Nereidum Montes, as seen by HiRISE under HiWish program The light-toned layers may contain sulfates which are good for preserving traces of ancient life.