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The maps below were produced by the Mars Global Surveyor ' s Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter; redder colors indicate higher elevations.The maps of the equatorial quadrangles use a Mercator projection, while those of the mid-latitude quadrangles use a Lambert conformal conic projection, and the maps of the polar quadrangles use a polar stereographic projection.
The northern part is an enormous topographic depression. About one-third of the surface (mostly in the northern hemisphere) lies 3–6 km lower in elevation than the southern two-thirds. This is a first-order relief feature on par with the elevation difference between Earth's continents and ocean basins. [12]
Like the Earth, the crustal properties and structure of the surface of Mars are thought to have evolved through time; in other words, as on Earth, tectonic processes have shaped the planet. However, both the ways this change has happened and the properties of the planet's lithosphere are very different when compared to the Earth.
The difference in the concentration of dust in Earth's atmosphere and that of Mars stems from a key factor. On Earth, dust that leaves atmospheric suspension usually gets aggregated into larger particles through the action of soil moisture or gets suspended in oceanic waters. It helps that most of Earth's surface is covered by liquid water ...
The most abundant silicate minerals on the Earth's surface include quartz, the feldspars, amphibole, mica, pyroxene, and olivine. [25] Common carbonate minerals include calcite (found in limestone), aragonite, and dolomite. [26] Elevation histogram of the surface of the Earth—approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered with water.
Interactive image map of the global topography of Mars. Hover your mouse over the image to see the names of over 60 prominent geographic features, and click to link to them. Coloring of the base map indicates relative elevations, based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor.
On Earth, the zero elevation datum is based on sea level (the geoid). Since Mars has no oceans and hence no 'sea level', it is convenient to define an arbitrary zero-elevation level or "vertical datum" for mapping the surface, called areoid. [9] The datum for Mars was defined initially in terms of a constant atmospheric pressure.
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