WHAT IS THE SURFACE OF MARS LIKE?

Mars has one of the most dramatic surfaces of any planet in the Solar System. Enormous volcanoes dominate the landscape, the largest of which —Olympus Mons — is over 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) tall. This is three times larger than Mount Everest on Earth! The giant canyon Vales Mariners is long enough to stretch across the entire United States of America.

Mar’s surface is a dry, barren wasteland marked by old volcanoes and impact craters. The entire surface can be scoured by a single sand storm that hides it from observation for days at a time. Despite the formidable conditions, Mar’s surface is better understood by scientists than any other part of the Solar System, except our own planet, of course.

Mars is a small world. Its radius is half of the Earth’s and it has a mass that is less than one tenth. The Red Planet’s total surface area is about 28% of Earth. While that does not sound like a large world at all, it is nearly equivalent to all of the dry land on Earth. The surface is thought to be mostly basalt, covered by a fine layer of iron oxide dust that has the consistency of talcum powder. Iron oxide(rust as it is commonly called) gives the planet its characteristic red hue.

In the ancient past of the planet volcanoes were able to erupt for millions of years unabated. A single hotspot could dump molten rock on the surface for millenia because Mars lacks plate tectonics. The lack of tectonics means that the same rupture in the surface stayed open until there was no more pressure to force magma to the surface. Olympus Mons formed in this manner and is the largest mountain in the Solar System. It is three time taller than Mt. Everest. These runaway volcanic actions could also partially explain the deepest valley in the Solar System. Valles Marineris is thought to be the result of a collapse of the material between two hotspots and is also on Mars.