Vallis Alpes
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Vallis Alpes is an enormous canyon which cuts through Montes Alpes. It is over 130 km long and as wide as 20 km with walls rising 2000 m above the canyon floor. A small rille is visible on the canyon floor in good seeing.
Soon after the Imbrium basin was excavated by an asteroid impact, the surrounding crust settled and tension caused 2 parallel faults to form across the Alpine range. The region between the faults subsided beneath the level of the mountain tops. The floor of the valley was eventually flooded with lava that flowed from the basin. | |||||||||||||||
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