Polar Regions, southern highlands, and northern plains. Do they sound like remote regions of the Earth? Or do they remind you of a fictional terrain made for books, like Tolkien’s Middle-earth? In reality, they are the names given to three distinct regions on the Martian surface!
Similar to the Earth’s Polar Regions, Martian poles also have ice caps. Surface temperatures are the lowest here compared to anywhere else on the planet. The ice cap on the south lies at a higher level than the north, and is also colder. In fact, a large portion of Mars’ southern side lies on higher ground compared to the north (by one to three kilometres), which gives it the name, southern highlands. Here, we can find a lot of craters created by the impact of meteors that are said to have bombarded the planet nearly 4 billion years ago.
The northern part of Mars, however, has far fewer craters even though it covers nearly one-third of the planet. The flat terrain of the low-lying northern plains is said to have been created by lava flows. The iron-rich dust and sand on the plains give it a pale appearance. Decades ago when telescopes were far less powerful than the ones we have today, astronomers mistook the northern plains for continents, and the dark-coloured southern highlands, for oceans!
Picture Credit : Google
