Bill McNair

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Shalbatana.
Bill McNair
As far as we know, at the present time Earth is the only place in this solar system to have shorelines. Way back in the past though, they might have been present on Venus too, and most definitely have been present on Mars as well. The first region of the Red Planet to have been identified as a shoreline is called Shalbatana Vallis. The name is a combination of the Akkadian word Shalbatana, which means Mars, and the Latin word vallis, which stands for valley. And although neither the ancient Mesopotamiam empire nor the European one had anything to do with Mars, is sure sounds cool enough for a region of such importance. Shalbatana Vallis is located in the Oxia Palus quadrangle, in the western hemisphere. It once contained a massive lake 80 square miles large (210 square kilometers) and possibly as deep as 1,500 feet (460 meters). All that water is gone now, of course. Its place was taken by the widespread, reddish Martian dust that engulfs the planet, and from place to place the remnants of ancient impact craters are now extremely visible.
Pushing Ice
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