Solar System Geological Features That You Must Know: Which One's the Most Impressive?

The Solar System where Earth belongs is composed of eight planets, many moons, asteroids, and other astronomical objects. The four planets nearest to the Sun, such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, are called terrestrial planets. Meanwhile, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called the Jovian planets.

According to Cliffs Notes, the tectonic, magmatic, and surficial processes that shaped Earth also happens to other planets. That means impressive geological features are not exclusive to Earth.

Planetary Geosciences Professor David Rothery of the Open University compiles five of the most notable geological features found in the Solar System in his article in The Conversation cited by Space.com.

Mars' Valles Marineris

Valles Marineris (Mariner Valley) is Mars' grandest canyon that runs along the Martian equator. According to NASA, this amazing land formation is 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) long and reaches 4 miles (7 kilometers). To put it simply, Valles Marineris is as long as the whole United States and spans about 20% of the whole Red Planet.

Scientists believe that Valles Marineris is a large tectonic crack on Mars that formed as the planet cooled, widened, and deepened by subsequent erosional forces.

Venus' Ovda Regio

Professor Rothery wrote that one of Venus' geological features looks familiar. The planet's highlands called Ovda Regio look like a fold-like pattern much like the fold mountains of Earth called the Appalachians, which resulted from a collision between continents.

NASA's JPL featured Ovda Regio on their website, describing the landscape as one of the large highlands ringing the equator of Venus. The ridges measure about 5-9 miles (8-15 kilometers) in width and 20-40 miles (30-60 kilometers) long. Extension fractures have cut some of the ridges at right angles, while dark material fills the region between ridges. Some scientists believe Ovda Regio is a site of hot upwelling from Venus' interior dominated by volcanism and crustal extension.

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Mercury's Caloris Basin

As NASA reported, Mercury does not have an atmosphere to protect it from space debris. Due to that, it is riddled with craters that form spectacular geological features. But none could compete to the Caloris Basin. Geologists use the term "Basin" to call craters larger than 186 miles (300 kilometers) in diameter.

Caloris Basin is about 950 miles (1,525 kilometers) across and is surrounded by at least one-mile high mountains. The basin is even larger than the state of Texas, which is 773 miles (1,244 kilometers).

Uranus' Verona Rupes

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According to NASA's Space Place, the tallest cliff on Earth can be found in the rugged mountains of northern Canada. It is over 4,100 feet tall that would take 20 seconds for anyone to hit the ground, traveling at 150mils per hour.

However, that does not compare to the highest cliff in the Solar System found in Uranus. It is called the Verona Rupes, which is over six miles high and nearly 33,000 feet tall. Amazingly, it would take around eight minutes to fall from this height, and the jumper would be much slower traveling at 90 miles per hour.

Saturn's Largest Moon Titan

The last on the list of Professor Rothery's top five most impressive geological features in the Solar System is Saturn's largest moon called Titan. He wrote that a large depression in Titan's water-ice bedrock could be seen where a sea of liquid methane called Ligeia Mare is located.

According to ESA, Ligeia Mare is the second-largest known body of liquid on Titan, measuring about 260 miles (420 kilometers) in length, 217 miles (350 miles) in width, and extends to more than 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers).