Exploratour - The Surface of Mars
Leave the Tour and look at the Annotated map of Mars
Soils
The soils of Mars are a brownish-red or yellow color which seem to contain a lot of iron oxide (rust).
The first analysis of Mars' soil from Viking landers found no evidence of life. The Viking missions did confirm the presence of water in the soils and atmosphere, as both ice and vapor.
The soils found near the rocks explored by Mars Pathfinder's Rover were similar to those found by Viking I, even though the rocks were not. This suggests that soils of Mars may be the same around the globe, perhaps carried around by global dust storms.