Deseado (crater)
Deseado Crater is a large Hesperian- or Amazonian-age impact crater in Promethei Planum near the south pole of Mars, within the Mare Australe quadrangle, due south of the Hellas impact basin. It is named for Puerto Deseado, Argentina. The crater contains a central topographic high interpreted to be an ice mound of probable Amazonian age. Despite the proximity of the ice mound to the southern polar ice sheet, it is not interpreted to have initially been a part of it. Deseado Crater features in the Mass Effect trilogy as the home of a structure constructed by a species called the Protheans to study the evolution of early humans. Context Deseado Crater is a southern polar crater on Mars located in Promethei Planum near the Planum Australe plateau (at the south pole), south of the Hellas impact basin. The crater is cartographically situated within the Mare Australe quadrangle. It is located north of Chasma Australe and Australe Lingula, respectively a canyon and a lobate promontory of Planum Australe. The crater, which has a diameter of 27.8 km and a maximum depth of 1.44 km, is immediately adjacent to the edge of the Southern Polar Layered Deposit (SPLD), a geologic unit constituting