[1] The Eridania quadrangle lies between 30° and 65° south latitude and 180° and 240° west longitude on the planet Mars.

[9][10] Because of the good possibility that liquid water was involved with their formation and that they could be very young, scientist believe gullies are where we may be able to find life.

Various measurements and calculations show that liquid water could exist in aquifers at the usual depths where gullies begin.

[11] One variation of this model is that rising hot magma could have melted ice in the ground and caused water to flow in aquifers.

[13] As for the next theory, much of the surface of Mars is covered by a thick smooth mantle that is thought to be a mixture of ice and dust.

[14][15][16] This ice-rich mantle, a few yards thick, smooths the land, but in places it has a bumpy texture, resembling the surface of a basketball.

The water comes back to ground at lower latitudes as deposits of frost or snow mixed generously with dust.

This movement of water could last for several thousand years and create a snow layer of up to around 10 meters thick.

[25] The third theory might be possible since climate changes may be enough to simply allow ice in the ground to melt and thus form the gullies.

During a warmer climate, the first few meters of ground could thaw and produce a "debris flow" similar to those on the dry and cold Greenland east coast.

[26] Since the gullies occur on steep slopes only a small decrease of the shear strength of the soil particles is needed to begin the flow.

[29] Many areas on Mars, including Eridania, experience the passage of giant dust devils.

Researchers believe these magnetic stripes on Mars are evidence for a short, early period of plate tectonic activity.

[41] Some researchers have proposed that early in its history Mars exhibited a form of plate tectonics.

At about 3.93 billion years ago Mars became a one plate planet with a superplume under Tharsis.

At that time, the solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) sublimates or changes directly to a gas and rushes away at high speeds.

Each Martian year 30% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere freezes out and covers the pole that is experiencing winter, so there is a great potential for strong winds.

[48] Glaciers, loosely defined as patches of currently or recently flowing ice, are thought to be present across large but restricted areas of the modern Martian surface, and are inferred to have been more widely distributed at times in the past.

[59] The Eridania Basin, located near 180 E and 30 South, is thought to have contained a large lake with a depth of 1 km in places.

There are high levels of potassium in the area which may point to a deep mantle source for volcanism or major changes in the crust.

Analyses from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided evidence of ancient hydrothermal seafloor deposits in Eridania basin, suggesting that hydrothermal vents pumped mineral-laden water directly into this ancient Martian lake.

[70] Much of the Martian surface is covered with a thick ice-rich, mantle layer that has fallen from the sky a number of times in the past.

[78][79][80][81] Indeed, a study published in June 2017, calculated that the volume of water needed to carve all the channels on Mars was even larger than the proposed ocean that the planet may have had.