Opponents of the lava flow hypothesis historically noted that the valley floor of the Athabasca Valles did not appear to morphologically resemble an uneroded lava surface (as seen on the medium-resolution camera Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and the low-resolution Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA)), and (along with all the channels of central Elysium Planitia) do not closely resemble any of the lava surfaces analogously located on Earth. In terrestrial settings, lava erosion is extremely rare and only occurs when it a hot lava is concentrated in a narrow area (such as an insulated lava tube) and is running down a steep slope. These conditions are inconsistent with the observed conditions in the Athabasca Valles and the other outflow channels in this region.