Icaria Planum



Icaria Planum is a region on Mars in the Thaumasia quadrangle. It is located roughly south-southwest of the Tharsis Rise. Icaria Planum is named after the island of Ikaria, where, according to Greek mythology, Icarus fell and died in the sea.

Icaria Planum is relatively ancient and cratered, with an estimated age of 3.59 billion years. Some subsequent volcanic resurfacing occurred ~0.94 billion years ago, in the Middle Amazonian period. Icaria Planum hosts numerous wrinkle ridges, a class of compressional faults thought to have formed from stresses in the Martian crust. The wrinkle ridges in Icaria Planum formed roughly 3.46 billion years ago and are largely concentric to the Tharsis Rise, likely due to the immense weight of the emplaced volcanic material as Tharsis formed. Icaria Planum hosts an alluvial fan, likely due to the breach of an ancient paleolake from an impact crater close to the nearby Claritas Fossae.