Hellas Planitia

Topographic map of Hellas Planitia and its surroundings in the southern uplands, from the MOLA instrument of Mars Global Surveyor. The crater depth is 7,152 m (23,465 ft) below the standard topographic datum of Mars.

Hellas Planitia /ˈhɛləs pləˈnɪʃiə/ is a plain located within the huge, roughly circular impact basin Hellas located in the southern hemisphere of the planet Mars. Hellas is the fourth or fifth-largest known impact crater in the Solar System. The basin floor is around 7,152 m (23,465 ft) deep, 3,000 m (9,800 ft) deeper than the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin, and extends about 2,300 km (1,400 mi) east to west. It is centered at 42°24′S 70°30′E / 42.4°S 70.5°E / -42.4; 70.5. It features the lowest point on Mars, serves as a known source of global dust storms, and may have contained lakes and glaciers. Hellas Planitia spans the boundary between the Hellas quadrangle and the Noachis quadrangle.