Morella Crater provides an insight to the spectacular catastrophic floods that spawned on
Mars from the breaching of its crater lake. Morella crater, a 76.97 km diameter complex
crater, is breached on its eastern side by the Elaver Vallis outflow channel and is nested with
an extremely deep collapse structure, called the Ganges Cavus. This crater exhibits temporal
and spatial link between diverse features like collapse structure, water pooling, breaching and
outflow channel that indicates its complex history, and thus can shed light on several
geological conundrums that modified the Martian surface environment. Thus, the present
study focused on the surface modification processes that was further used for proposing
different stages of evolution of Morella crater. Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Digital
Elevation Models (DEMs), High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) images
and MRO Context Camera (CTX) images together with Thermal Emission Imaging System
(THEMIS) night time images, and Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer of Mars
(CRISM) data were used to elucidate the morphological, textural and mineralogical analysis
of Morella crater. Whereas the transient morphometry of the crater was deciphered by Monte
Carlo simulation (a type of computational algorithm) as well as chronological investigations
were carried out using the ArcMap 10.8 and Craterstats 2.0 software’s. Furthermore, a
schematic model depicting the entire sequel of the origin and evolution of this crater was
done using Interactive Erosion simulation in Web Browser (Webgl-Erosion).
This study proposes a five-stage processes that manifest the origin and evolution of Morella
crater representing a Hesperian Lake basin that was once fed by groundwater. Stage 1 reveals
an asteroid impact that formed Morella Crater with extensively fractured terrain along the
equatorial region of Mras. The sepulchring of crater was due to filling-up of deposits by
volcanic and aeolian origin (stage 2). Later in third stage, Ganges Cavus, a deep collapsed
part was formed by the fault mechanism near southern region of Morella crater.
Subsequently, the breakout of confined groundwater from the Cavus produced a lake in
Morella and leads to filling of crater, which is depicted in the fourth stage. Eventually, the
lake level rose until the wall of Morella crater was overtopped and breached leading to
catastrophic release of ponded waters and the carving of the Elaver Vallis channel complex.
By these inferences important evidence for the sediment deposits in crater, subsidence of
Ganges Cavus, source of water that filled the crater and the catastrophic release of ponded

water were revealed. Thus, this study shed more but convincing evidences on the origin and
evolution of Morella Crater.