[5] The Noctis Labyrinthus fracture zone is centered at the heart of the Tharsis Rise, dividing a plateau of Hesperian-Noachian age that is understood to be of a basaltic composition.

[7] In Noctis Labyrinthus in particular, some researchers have speculated that the fracture zone's corridors may connect deeper intrusive structures, forming a plumbing network more akin to the terrestrial Thulean mantle plume, which was responsible for the formation of the North Atlantic Igneous Province.

[8] Some authors have also proposed that Noctis Labyrinthus' chasmata may have formed due to extensional faulting in weakened rocks composed of interlayered tuff and lava flows, known to produce pit crater chains parallel to graben.

Chasmata and pit crater chains like those of Noctis Labyrinthus are likewise also not observed near areas where phreatomagmatic activity is strongly believed to have occurred, such as the Sisyphi Montes.

[8] Others have proposed that the chasmata of Noctis Labyrinthus are collapse features of a karstic nature, in which constituent carbonate rock is dissolved by meteoric water that has been acidified by acids originating in volcanic gases.

Some authors have attributed the steady collapse of the valley walls to creep tied to thermal cycling, which could cause the repeated freezing and thawing of ground ice.

[6] Based on CRISM spectral imagery, authors studying this depression have interpretatively identified the presence of: Of the hydrated iron sulfate minerals observed in the basin, some of them - such as ferricopiapite - are not stable in modern Martian conditions.

However, researchers have suggested that they appear to coexist because the different deposits may have been exposed to the open atmosphere at different times, and some of these minerals do only fully dehydrate under Martian conditions over the course of many years.

[6] In 2024, scientists Pascal Lee and Sourabh Shubham found evidence from CRISM, the HiRISE camera, and the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter that this heat source was a volcano near the northeast end of the labyrinthus that they dubbed Noctis Mons, which would be the seventh-highest mountain on Mars at 9,028 m (29,619 ft), and that the eastern part of its base was home to multiple glaciers with potential for hosting life, which could make it a highly valuable candidate target for astrobiology missions.

[6] In 1980, Philippe Masson of the University of Paris-Sud offered an integrated interpretation of the structural geochronology of Valles Marineris, Noctis Labyrinthus, and Claritas Fossae in light of imagery from Mariner 9 and the Viking Orbiter.