Deseado Crater is a large Hesperian - or Amazonian -age impact crater in Promethei Planum near the south pole of Mars, within the Mare Australe quadrangle , due south of the Hellas impact basin . It is named for Puerto Deseado , Argentina . The crater contains a central topographic high interpreted to be an ice mound of probable Amazonian age. Despite the proximity of the ice mound to the southern polar ice sheet, it is not interpreted to have initially been a part of it. Deseado Crater features in the Mass Effect trilogy as the home of a structure constructed by a species called the Protheans to study the evolution of early humans.
15-463: Deseado may refer to: Geographic names and features [ edit ] Deseado (crater) , a crater on the planet Mars Deseado Department , a department in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Deseado Massif , a geological formation in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Deseado River , a river in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Puerto Deseado ,
30-470: A city in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Watercraft [ edit ] SS Deseado , a passenger ship built by Harland and Wolff in 1912 MV Deseado , refrigerated cargo ship built by Harland and Wolff in 1942 Deseado (yacht) , a yacht abandoned in 2006 See also [ edit ] All pages with titles containing Deseado Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
45-597: A maximum depth of 1.44 km, is immediately adjacent to the edge of the Southern Polar Layered Deposit (SPLD), a geologic unit constituting Mars’ southern polar ice sheet interpreted to be alternating layers of dust and ice. The crater is named for Puerto Deseado , a town in Argentina . The name was officially approved by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. Deseado Crater
60-639: Is a southern polar crater on Mars located in Promethei Planum near the Planum Australe plateau (at the south pole), south of the Hellas impact basin. The crater is cartographically situated within the Mare Australe quadrangle . It is located north of Chasma Australe and Australe Lingula , respectively a canyon and a lobate promontory of Planum Australe. The crater, which has a diameter of 27.8 km and
75-512: Is referenced in the Mass Effect series as the location of an extraterrestrial installation operated by an ancient spacefaring species called the Protheans. The alien species used Deseado Crater as a base to observe the evolution of Cro-Magnon humans on Earth. Archives in the crater's base contained information that ultimately permitted humanity to develop faster-than-light travel. Deseado Crater
90-538: Is thought to be a large system of eskers that were under an ancient ice cap in the south polar region of Mars. The ancient ice cap was at least twice the size of the present ice cap and may have been 1500–2000 meters thick. Later research suggests that the area of this polar ice sheet is believed to have covered about 1.5 million square kilometers, roughly twice the size of France or the American state of Texas. This group of ridges extends from 270–100 E and 70–90 S, around
105-567: The eskers of the Dorsa Argentea Formation formed. They concluded that a greenhouse gas in addition to a thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere was needed to warm the surface enough. In addition, to produce the shape of the ice sheet, at least part of the Tharsis volcanoes needed to be present. In other words, Tharsis volcanoes came before the ice sheet. MARSIS radar data suggest that significant areas of layered, potentially ice-rich parts of
120-524: The ice cap from accumulating snow. A thick ice sheet is more likely in the south polar region than in the north pole because the south pole is higher in altitude. Also, there may have been much more water available in the Martian atmosphere when the ice sheet developed. A team of researchers used an early Mars global climate model together with the University of Maine Ice Sheet Model to determine how
135-524: The ice sheet formed near the boundary of the Noachian -Hesperian era and receded in the early Hesperian era. The Dorsa Argentea Formation represents a time when there was melting and drainage of meltwater from a giant ice sheet around the Martian South Pole. Various mechanisms may have caused the ice to melt. Possible mechanisms may have been a warmer atmosphere, volcanism, or increased thickness of
150-479: The retaining ice walls melted away, stream deposits remained as long winding ridges. Crater counts show that the ridges are of two different ages. One dates from Early Hesperian , while the other group dates to the Late Noachian . These dates correspond to the time when Mars had lakes and valley networks which formed from runoff, drainage and storage of liquid water on the surface of Mars. Later studies suggest
165-510: The south pole of Mars. It sits under the Late Amazonian South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD), in the Mare Australe quadrangle . The combined length of these ridges is huge, one study studied seven different ridge systems which contained almost 4,000 ridges that had a total length 51,000 km. Most eskers are thought to be formed inside ice-walled tunnels by streams which flowed within and under glaciers . After
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#1732851561894180-464: The title Deseado . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deseado&oldid=1240724508 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Deseado (crater) Deseado Crater
195-680: The west of the impact basin's true center, a common feature in ice-mound-bearing craters with high aspect ratios (diameter to depth). This asymmetry has been interpreted to be caused by the Coriolis effect , which deflects katabatic winds to the west in the Martian southern hemisphere. Other than viscous flow features, the Deseado ice mound does not exhibit clear layering, edge ridges, stacked mounds, or sand dune seas. These other features have been reported in craters of similar morphologies. Dorsa Argentea Formation The Dorsa Argentea Formation (DAF)
210-606: Was emplaced on a flat low-lying (possibly lava-formed) plain associated with the Dorsa Argentea Formation . It has been dated to the Hesperian or, more recently, to the Amazonian period by different researchers. The center of Deseado Crater contains a central terraced dome that is hypothesized to be a large ice mound. This feature is separate from, but near to the periphery of, the main southern polar ice sheet. The feature
225-416: Was initially interpreted to represent an outlying extension of the main ice sheet and is likely to be much younger than the crater itself, perhaps of late Amazonian age. However, the lack of flow features in the impact basin suggests that the Deseado ice mound is probably an in situ feature rather than migrating material that was separated from the main ice sheet. The central ice mound is also biased to
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