Exploring Mars’ watery past is very demure, very cutesy, very mindful 🔴 These incredible images from our Mars Express probe shows the dried-up remains of what was once the largest lake on the Red Planet – dwarfing anything we have on Earth! Nicknamed “Lake Eridania,” this vast body of water stretched for over a million square kilometers. While the water’s gone now, Mars Express is helping scientists piece together the Martian climate and search for signs of past life. Alongside water, there are clear signs of volcanism at play in and around the area. Two long cracks run vertically down through the image, cross-cutting both the aforementioned lakebed and the smoother ground to the left. These are known as the Sirenum Fossae faults, and formed as Mars’s Tharsis region – home to the largest volcanoes in the Solar System – rose up and put immense stress on Mars’s crust. Volcanic stress is also to blame for the many wrinkle ridges found here. These appear as wriggly lines weaving acr...