Devon Island, Baffin Region, Canada. © Timothy K via Panoramio / Google Maps.
Wal Thornhill pointed long ago that some features of Devon Island, Canada, resemble very much to Martian ones.
I’ll show here for the record the specific canyon mentioned in his article (similar to the photo above), and the “tributaries” of Valles Marineris:
The system of V-shaped tributary canyons along the south rim of Ius Chasma on Mars. See them on Google Mars. © NASA / JPL / MSSS / Arizona State University
The main differences I see between the Devon Island and this area of Mars is the lack of small craters on Earth and the more circular ending of the valleys on Mars. There is however a big crater (the Haughton crater, some 15 km in diameter) clearly visible by zooming out and panning left. The cross section and the walls are quite similar on both planets. Please compare the photo of Devon Island above with the following hirise pictures (the red rectangles, from left to tight):
The similarity of Devon Island with Mars is precisely why NASA has some research facilities there:
You can learn more about the Haughton Mars Project and the Devon Island research facilities at http://www.marsonearth.org/.
