Geography of Mars Aurorae Sinus. The largest dark feature seen from Earth is Syrtis Major Planum. The shield volcano, Olympus Mons ("Mount Olympus"), rises 22 km above the surrounding volcanic plains, and is the highest known mountain on any planet in the solar system. It is in a vast upland region called Tharsis, which contains several large volcanos. See list of mountains on Mars. The Tharsis region of Mars also has the solar system's largest canyon system, Valles Marineris or the "Mariner Valley", which is 4,000 km long and 7 km deep. Mars is also scarred by countless impact craters. The largest of
Solar System all have impact craters and tectonic surface features, such as rift valleys and volcanoes. The term "inner planet" should not be confused with "inferior planet", which designates those planets that are closer to the Sun than Earth is (i.e. Mercury and Venus). Asteroids except for the largest, Ceres, are classified as small Solar System bodies and are composed mainly of refractory rocky and metallic minerals, with some ice. They range from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres in size. Asteroids smaller than one meter are usually called meteoroids and micrometeoroids (grain-sized), depending on different, somewhat arbitrary definitions. The asteroid