Surface Features on Mars

... or Photogeology

Mars has just about a little bit of everything.

Volcanos

The Volcanos of Tharsis: Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, Ascaeus Mons, and Olympus Mons:

Olympus Mons is the biggest volcano in the solar system:

•  26 km high
• the lower scarps are 6 km high
• base is 600 km across
• caldera is 70 km across
• compare to Mauna Loa and Everest (both ~ 8 km high)

Giant Chasms

Valles Marineris ("the Mariner Valley"):

• 4000 km long (LA to NY!)
• 5-8 km deep
• located on the edge of the Tharsis bulge
  
  

and lots of Impact Craters

What have we learned?

An enormous photomosaic of Mars from the Viking Orbiter is here. (and I mean big -- 2.6Mb!)

But what's it like being on Mars?

Landers (Viking [1976], Pathfinder [1997]) have shown us:

With frost!

Pathfinder gave us even better views, in 3D!
 

• Pathfinder airbags
• Mars surface
• Gargantuan panorama!