Valles Marineris canyon on Mars. Coloured high- resolution image from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft of the Valles Marineris canyon (at centre). The vast canyon is 6000 km long. The area shown in the picture is the Coprates Catena area which is at the centre of the canyon. North is at top. The layered rocks on either side imply a complex and extremely active early history for geological processes on Mars. The image was taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on board the MGS spacecraft which was launched in November 1996. The southern slopes have been coloured red to make the image more earth-like". Resolution is 4.8 meters/pixel. The image is of an area 10 x 12 km."