Discovered in 1659, Syrtis Major is a region of Mars with an area of ​​about 1,300×1,500 km (about 930×630 miles), thus about half of Europe. Initially, they thought it was a sea but today we know that this is a region of volcanic origin. Now the ESA Mars Express spacecraft has revealed new details of Syrtis Major.

The Mars Express went into Mars orbit on Christmas Day 2003 to study the planet with various instruments. Its main mission was to look for water beneath the Martian surface and included the lander Beagle 2, which unfortunately has never sent any signals after landing on Mars. Starting from 2007 the mission of the orbiter, which instead has kept on working, had a number of extensions and among the many pictures it sent us there are those of Syrtis Major.

These new images show that in that region there are lava flows that filled the older highlands material leaving isolated hills. Ancient craters have been filled some partially and some completely by lava.

Later, the area has been shaped by winds, leading even to the formation of dunes on the sickle-shaped kind called barchans, the most common shape on Earth as well.

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The quantity and the size of the craters can be used for dating the surfaces in the solar system because the craters accumulate in the course of time. Using this method it was estimated that this volcanic region dates back to a geological era of Mars when the planet had a widespread volcanic activity between 3 and 3.7 billion years ago.

Thanks to the Mars Express space probe, the Mars Rovers and other space missions we’re getting more and more detailed information on Mars, its history and its geology. In part, knowing Mars history helps us to know the entire solar system’s history and therefore Earth’s history as well. In part, it helps in the search for possible life forms that at least in the past may have existed on Mars. We hope that this knowledge will help us in the future in new missions that involve sending humans to Mars.