He called a feature "Aurea Cherso, which translates to the golden peninsula—an ancient name for Malaya.

But, Aureum Chaos covers an area about the size of the state of Alabama, almost 20 times larger than the Grand Canyon National Park.

Large outflow channels on Mars are believed to be caused by catastrophic discharges of ground water.

The OMEGA experiment on Mars Express discovered clay minerals (phyllosilicates) in a variety places in Aureum Chaos.

[4] Scientists are interested in determining what parts of Mars contained water because evidence of past or present life may be found there.