![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/PIA22059_fig1eridaniadepths.jpg/640px-PIA22059_fig1eridaniadepths.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Eridania Lake
Proposed ancient lake on Mars / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eridania Lake is a hypothesized ancient lake on Mars with a surface area of roughly 1.1 million square kilometers. It is located at the source of the Ma'adim Vallis outflow channel and extends into Eridania quadrangle and the Phaethontis quadrangle.[1] As Eridania Lake dried out in the late Noachian epoch it divided into a series of smaller lakes.[2][3][4][5]
- Map showing estimated water depth in different parts of Eridania Sea This map is about 850 km (530 miles) across.
- Features around Eridania Sea labeled
Later research with CRISM found thick deposits, greater than 400 meters thick, that contained the minerals saponite, talc-saponite, Fe-rich mica (for example, glauconite-nontronite), Fe- and Mg-serpentine, Mg-Fe-Ca-carbonate and probable Fe-sulphide. The Fe-sulphide probably formed in deep water from water heated by volcanoes. Such a process, classified as hydrothermal may have been a place where life began.[6] Some sources say clay deposits can be up to 2 km thick.[7]
- Deep-basin deposits from the floor of Eridania Sea. The mesas on the floor are there because they were protected against intense erosion by deep water/ice cover. CRISM measurements show minerals may be from seafloor hydrothermal deposits. Life may have originated in this sea.
- Diagram showing how volcanic activity may have caused deposition of minerals on floor of Eridania Sea. Chlorides were deposited along the shoreline by evaporation.