Mars has the largest volcanoes in the solar scheme, including Olympus Mons, which is about 370 miles (600 kilometers) in diameter, wide sufficient to cover the whole state of New Mexico. It is a protect volcano, with gradients that rise step-by-step like those of Hawaiian volcanoes, and was created by eruptions of lavas that ran for long distances before solidifying. Mars furthermore has numerous other types of volcanic landforms, from little, steep-sided cones to tremendous flat lands encased in hardened lava. Some minor eruptions might still occur on the planet.

researchers think the Valles Marineris formed mostly by rifting of the crust as it got extended. Individual canyons inside the system are as much as 60 miles (100 kilometers) broad. They merge in the central part of the Valles Marineris in a district as much as 370 miles (600 kilometers) wide. Large passages appearing from the finishes of some canyons and layered sediments within propose the canyons might one time have been filled with fluid water.

passages, valleys, and gullies are discovered all over Mars, and propose that liquid water might have ran across the planet's exterior in latest times. Some passages can be 60 miles (100 kilometers) broad and 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) long. Water may still lie in cracks and pores in below ground rock.

numerous regions of Mars are flat, low-lying flat lands. The lowest of the to the north flat lands are amidst the flattest, smoothest places in the solar scheme, possibly conceived by water that one time ran over the Martian surface. The to the north hemisphere mostly lies at a lower elevation than the southern hemisphere, suggesting the crust may be narrower in the north than in the south. This distinction between the north and south might be due to a very large impact shortly after the birth of Mars.