Mercury’s great valley revealed in new digital elevation model

Mercury’s great valley revealed in a new high-resolution digital elevation model derived from stereo images obtained by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.  The great valley is shown by shades of dark blue in the colorized topography.  The bounding fault scarps are more than 3 km above the valley floor in some areas. Part of the rim of the Rembrandt basin (white arrows), one of the largest and youngest impact basins on Mercury, was lowered when the valley formed.  

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/DLR