The Golden Plain where Mars' great floods came to rest.
Chryse Planitia — the "Golden Plain" — is a broad, low basin in the northern hemisphere where several of Mars' largest outflow channels empty out. It was the landing site of Viking 1 in 1976, the first spacecraft to operate on the Martian surface for an extended mission.
Claim your plot here →Chryse Planitia is a shallow, circular basin that acted as a catch-basin for some of the mightiest floods in Martian history. Enormous outflow channels — including Kasei Valles, Ares Vallis and Maja Valles — converge and drain into it, leaving behind streamlined islands and flood-scoured terrain that testify to catastrophic releases of water.
The plain holds a special place in exploration history: Viking 1 touched down here in 1976 and returned the first sustained surface data and images from Mars. Two decades later, the Mars Pathfinder mission landed nearby at the mouth of Ares Vallis, making Chryse and its surroundings one of the most historically important regions on the planet.
Like Utopia Planitia, a great northern lowland — but Chryse is defined by the flood channels draining into it.
The floods that shaped it dwarfed any terrestrial flood, carving channels visible from orbit.