What are the major features and landforms on the surface of Mars? They include immense volcanoes, a continent-scale canyon system, impact basins, broad plains, and landscapes shaped by ancient water. These ten highlights are a guided tour, not an official NASA ranking. Together, they show how volcanism, impacts, crustal movement, water, and the atmosphere have shaped the planet.
Volcanic terrain: a province and its volcanoes
1. Tharsis
Tharsis is a vast volcano-tectonic province near Mars’s equator, not a single volcano. NASA/JPL’s global topography map places several major shield volcanoes in this region, including Olympus Mons, Alba Patera, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons. The immense volcanic terrain and nearby canyon system make Tharsis a useful starting point for understanding the planet’s largest-scale relief. NASA/JPL’s Mars topography map shows the regional layout.
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2. Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is a shield volcano and, as NASA puts it, “the largest volcano in the solar system.” NASA’s current Mars facts page gives its height as more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) from base to summit. That figure uses the volcano’s full base-to-summit relief, so it should not be confused with elevation measured from a local surrounding plain. NASA’s Mars facts page supplies the current figure.
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Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arsia Mons are other major shield volcanoes associated with Tharsis; Alba Patera is also identified among the province’s major volcanic features on NASA/JPL’s map. They are part of the same broad volcanic landscape as Olympus Mons, but each is a distinct landform. Taken together, the province and its volcanoes show why Mars’s volcanic story is regional as well as individual.
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Canyon and rift terrain
4. Valles Marineris
Valles Marineris is a sprawling canyon system, not simply one narrow crack. NASA gives its dimensions as about 2,400 miles (3,870 kilometers) long, up to 370 miles (600 kilometers) wide, and about 5.8 miles (9.3 kilometers) deep. Its exceptional length, width, and relief make it one of the defining features of the Martian surface. NASA/JPL’s topography map shows its position in relation to Tharsis; NASA’s Mars facts page provides the measurements.
Impact basins and plains
5. Hellas Planitia
Hellas Planitia is a major impact basin in Mars’s southern hemisphere. NASA describes it as about 2,200 kilometers across, with some of the planet’s lowest elevations and a varied landscape. A basin is the broad depression left by an enormous impact; its low terrain is a striking contrast to elevated volcanic provinces such as Tharsis. NASA/JPL’s topography map identifies the basin, and a NASA overview of Mars describes its scale and varied terrain.
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6. Argyre, Isidis, and Utopia basins
Argyre, Isidis, and Utopia are additional major impact basins identified in NASA/JPL’s global topography description. They are useful landmarks in a planet-scale view: the Martian surface is not just volcanoes and canyons, but also extensive depressions formed by impacts. The map names these basins without establishing dimensions for each here, so no size comparison is implied.
7. Broad plains
Mars also has broad plains between its more dramatic elevated and depressed regions. In NASA/JPL’s topography map, the named basins and volcanic terrain provide the large-scale context for these lower and flatter expanses. Plains are a different kind of feature from a single volcano or crater: they are regional surfaces that help reveal the planet’s overall relief.
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Landscapes shaped by water and ice
8. Ancient valley networks
Networks of valleys cut across parts of Mars. NASA says these landforms, together with deltas, lakebeds, and associated rocks and minerals, indicate that the planet had a watery past. They preserve evidence of ancient surface-water activity, rather than showing that liquid water is widespread on Mars today. NASA’s Mars facts page summarizes this evidence.
9. Deltas and lakebeds
Deltas and lakebeds are further records of that ancient watery environment. A delta forms where sediment carried by flowing water is deposited, while a lakebed marks terrain associated with a former lake. NASA identifies both among the Martian surface forms and evidence associated with the planet’s watery past; their value lies in what they preserve about earlier conditions.
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10. Polar regions and subsurface ice
Mars’s polar regions include water ice beneath the surface, according to NASA. That subsurface ice is distinct from the visible polar caps, whose composition is not detailed in the cited facts page. Mars has a thin atmosphere, and NASA says liquid water cannot persist for long at the surface under present conditions. Evidence for ancient rivers and lakes should therefore not be read as proof of stable, present-day surface water. NASA’s Mars facts page describes both the ancient-water evidence and the limits on liquid water today.
How to read Mars’s surface
The ten highlights fit into a few broad processes: volcanism built Tharsis and its shield volcanoes; impacts formed major basins; crustal movement is part of the story behind the planet’s tectonic terrain; and water and atmospheric processes helped shape and preserve surface features. The differences in scale matter: Tharsis is a province, Olympus Mons is a volcano, Valles Marineris is a canyon system, and Hellas is a basin. NASA also notes that Mars’s surface area is nearly the same as the dry-land area of Earth—a comparison of surface area, not planetary size. NASA’s Mars facts page provides that comparison.
For location and relative elevation, NASA/JPL’s global topography map is a useful companion to the feature descriptions.
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