Some authors have proposed that a combination of mechanisms can satisfactorily explain the origin of the Athabasca Valles system - namely, the large-scale emplacement of low-viscosity lava flows on top of pre-existing glaciers. Apart from ice interactions, this large-scale low-viscosity volcanic efflux is thought to have formed up to a third of the modern Martian surface and has been analogized to Earth's large igneous provinces (LIPs). Individual periods of volcanic activity constituting the modern Elysium Planitia region are thought to have lasted up to 1 Myr, with the rock in the vicinity of the Athabasca Valles being potentially deposited on a timescale of weeks or months. Given the obliquity of Mars during this part of the Amazonian, it has been hypothesized that glaciers were likely actively accumulating in this region of Elysium Planitia at the same time as this period of volcanism.