Does Mars have different 'regions' like Earth?

Question

Whenever we see pictures of Mars it's always the same long red horizon with little to break up the scenery. What I'm wondering, do we know if Mars may have different areas like Earth. For example, on Earth we have forests, deserts, plains of grass etc. Now I know Mars doesn't have these, but I wonder if it is similar in having unique regions that maybe we can't see or don't understand. When the scientists talk about the oxidizing salt they found, aren't they talking about all their research being within a foot or so of the spacecraft? That's not much area! Same with the rovers. Haven't they traveled like a few hundred feet or so? On Earth, that would be like looking in someone's small yard, but missing everything around it!

Answer 1

Yes Mars has distinctive lanscape and each one has a unique name.. Like Olympus Mon.. or something like that..  

Answer 2

Not really

Answer 3

Mars has desert and permafrost.

Answer 4

It does. Altitude varies considerably, as does latitude. The atmospher is very thin, and very cold. The highest part of the surface, the summit of Olympus Mons, is virtually in the vacuum of space. Places near the equator are able to reach temp's above 0 C, and there is more frozen water esp. on the surface at the polar caps. Permifrost may be wide-spread. Others willl know more than I - mine is just a background knowledge.

Answer 5

Yes, it has regions.  At minimum, it has 2 polar regions.

Contains names of some Martian regions:

http://webgis.wr.usgs.gov/pigwad/down/ma...

Answer 6

there's a lota Terras, like Tempe Terra, Terra Sirenum, Arabia Terra, Promethia Terra, Terra Cimmeria (where Conan is from) and then Tharsis Tholis (where John Carter flew to on a thought) and Syrtis Major (no sign of Marina Syrtis, though, sad)

High land like Olympus Mons

Low lands like Valles Marineris

and some ice.

Answer 7

Many of the "regions" were named based on differences one could see by looking through a telescope from Earth.  Since then spacecraft have photographed the planet from orbit in ever-increasing detail.  A number of other orbiting instruments have gathered data related to things like the amounts of infra-red light radiated or the intensity of neutron emission following bombardment by the solar wind.  All these data can be interpreted in terms of minerology based on our Earth-bound experience of the behaviour of such minerals.  Landing a spacecraft in a particular region identified from these planetary observations provides some "ground truth" to relate such broad-scale data to more focussed analysis.  It is true that the landers such as Phoenix and the Vikings can only sample the area within a few meters.  The Sojourner rover from Mars Pathfinder explored a slightly bigger area, but still less than 100 meters across.  The exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity have travelled up to 10 km and conducted intensive surveys of several craters, hills and other features, each ranging up to several hundred meters in size.