The faults are quite young, cutting through pre-existing features such as the hills of the Tartarus Montes and the lava apron southeast of Elysium Mons.

[3] The formation of the fossae was suspected to have released pressurized underground water, previously confined by the cryosphere, with flow rates up to 2 × 106 m3s−1, leading to the creation of the Athabasca Valles.

[7] Crater counts suggest this last outflow from the Cerberus Fossae took place about 2 to 10 million years ago.

[8] There has been a suggestion such high discharges of water to the surface through these fissures are physically implausible [citation needed] and that lava was the fluid erupted from the Cerberus Fossae.

[13] In November 2020, astronomers reported newly found evidence for volcanic activity, as recently as 53,000 years ago, on the planet Mars.