Geologic map of the polar regions of Mars

These geologic maps of the north and south polar regions of Mars, extending to 55˚ north and south latitudes, overlap by 2˚ the geologic maps of the western and eastern regions, which extend to lat ±57˚. The maps were compiled from Viking medium-resolution photomosaics at scales of 1:2,000,000 and from higher resolution Viking images. The quality and resolution of the Viking pictures are superior to those of Mariner 9 used to prepare the previous maps (Scott and Carr, 1978) that includes these two regions. Because of the Viking orbital configuration, a vast number of high-resolution images of the area within 10˚ of the north pole was obtained, whereas many areas in lower northern latitudes were covered only by low-resolution images. In contrast, the south polar region is nearly completely covered by images at medium resolution but is not imaged at high resolution.