Editing Noctis Labyrinthus (section)

==Observational history==
[[File:25970noctuslayers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Section of layers near top of Noctis Labyrinthus, as seen by HiRISE under [[HiWish program]].]]
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 program|Viking Orbiter]].<ref name=masson1980 />

In 2003, Daniel Mège ([[Pierre and Marie Curie University]]), Anthony C. Cook ([[University of Nottingham]] and the [[Smithsonian Institution]]), Erwan Garel ([[University of Maine (France)|University of Maine]] in France), Yves Lagabrielle ([[University of Western Brittany]]), and Marie-Hélène Cormier ([[Columbia University]]) proposed a model for rifting on Mars initiated by the deflation of magma chambers, forming [[pit crater]] [[crater chain|chains]] tracking directionally with simple graben. The researchers offered the first theoretical explanation as to how the chasmata of Noctis Labyrinthus formed.<ref name=mege2003 />

In 2012, a collaboration of French researchers Patrick Thollot, Nicolas Mangold, Véronique Ansan, and Stéphan Le Mouélic ([[University of Nantes]]), along with a cadre of American researchers including [[John F. Mustard]] ([[Brown University]]), [[Ralph E. Milliken]] ([[University of Notre Dame]]), and [[Scott Murchie]] ([[Applied Physics Laboratory]]) reported on an unnamed basin in southeastern Noctis Labyrinthus showing an extremely wide assemblage of minerals known to form across a wide range of [[pH]] and [[Water on Mars|water availability conditions]]. The pit is the only one of its kind in Noctis Labyrinthus and has a greater variability than almost any other location yet observed on the planet. Using CRISM spectral data on [[HiRISE]] visual images for context, the researchers proposed that the variability of this pit is a result of hydrothermal alteration, with the dissolution of extant calcium-rich minerals (e.g. [[plagioclase]]) diminishing the acidity and thus kinds of minerals observed. The variability was explained without evoking a global warm and wet Martian climatic condition for the period.<ref name=thollot2012 />