page_title: Peace Vallis
hierarchical_section_title: Peace Vallis
caption_attribution_description: English: 09.27.2012 Where Water Flowed Downslope This image shows the topography, with shading added, around the area where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). Higher elevations are colored in red, with cooler colors indicating transitions downslope to lower elevations. The black oval indicates the targeted landing area for the rover known as the "landing ellipse," and the cross shows where the rover actually landed. An alluvial fan, or fan-shaped deposit where debris spreads out downslope, has been highlighted in lighter colors for better viewing. On Earth, alluvial fans often are formed by water flowing downslope. New observations from Curiosity of rounded pebbles embedded with rocky outcrops provide concrete evidence that water did flow in this region on Mars, creating the alluvial fan. Water carrying the pebbly material is thought to have streamed downslope extending the alluvial fan, at least occasionally, to where the rover now sits studying its ancient history. Elevation data were obtained from stereo processing of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UofA
context_page_description: Peace Vallis is an valley network in Gale Crater in the Aeolis quadrangle on the planet Mars; it appears to have been carved by fluids, perhaps water. The valley 'flows' southeast down out of the hills of Gale Crater to Aeolis Palus below near Mount Sharp and is centered 4.21°S 137.23°E. Peace Vallis is near the landing site of the Curiosity rover which started studying the valley in 2012. The name Peace Vallis was officially adopted by the IAU on September 26, 2012.
  Curiosity rover landed near the end of the Peace Vallis fan. Peace Vallis fan covers 80 km2 and obtained water from an area of 730 km2. Peace Vallis enters Gale Crater through a 15 km wide gap in its rim. Calculations suggest that the fan has an average thickness of 9 m. Numerous inverted channels are visible on the western surface of the fan. Runoff through Peace Vallis that made the fan is estimated to be between 600 and 6000 m; therefore a hydrologic cycle probably lasted at least thousands of years. The water that flowed in Peace Vallis is believed to be from precipitation maybe in the form of snow.
context_section_description: Peace Vallis is an valley network in Gale Crater in the Aeolis quadrangle on the planet Mars; it appears to have been carved by fluids, perhaps water. The valley 'flows' southeast down out of the hills of Gale Crater to Aeolis Palus below near Mount Sharp and is centered 4.21°S 137.23°E. Peace Vallis is near the landing site (Bradbury Landing) of the Curiosity rover which started studying the valley in 2012.  The name Peace Vallis was officially adopted by the IAU on September 26, 2012.
  Curiosity rover landed near the end of the Peace Vallis fan. Peace Vallis fan covers 80 km2 and obtained water from an area of 730 km2.   Peace Vallis enters Gale Crater through a 15 km wide gap in its rim.  Calculations suggest that the fan has an average thickness of 9 m.  Numerous inverted channels are visible on the western surface of the fan.  Runoff through Peace Vallis that made the fan is estimated to be between 600 and 6000 m; therefore a hydrologic cycle probably lasted at least thousands of years. The water that flowed in Peace Vallis is believed to be from precipitation maybe in the form of snow.
caption: Peace Vallis and related alluvial fan near the Curosity rover landing ellipse and landing site (Bradbury Landing) (noted by +).
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