Viking Lander 2 landed on a flat plain of fine‐grained sediment overlain by dispersed, evenly distributed boulders. The fine‐grained material is probably part of a high‐latitude mantle comprising material swept south from the polar regions. The boulders, which have distinctive deep pits, or vesicles, may be the residue of an ejecta deposit from the crater Mie. Alternatively, they may be the remnants of lava flows which formerly covered the region. Polygonal sediment‐filled cracks may have been formed by ice wedging, similar to the process that occurs in terrestrial permafrost regions. Alternatively, they may be desiccation polygons.

Viking 1 landed on volcanic terrain in the plains of Chryse. Stereo pictures reveal an undulating topography. Bedrock is exposed along several ridge crests. Blocks are more numerous than can be attributed to impact ejecta. The presence of an apparent variety of rock types suggests in situ weathering of extrusive and near‐surface basaltic igneous rocks along a linear volcanic vent. Fine‐grained sediment is present in drift complexes and isolated drifts. During the course of the Viking mission a small patch of fine‐grained sediment slumped down one of the drift faces. Otherwise, no morphological changes unrelated to spacecraft activity have been observed.

The first photographs ever returned from the surface of Mars were obtained by two facsimile cameras aboard the Viking 1 lander, including black-and-white and color, 0.12 degrees and 0.04 degrees resolution, and monoscopic and stereoscopic images. The surface, on the western slopes of Chtyse Planitia, is a boulder-strewn deeply reddish desert, with distant eminences-some of which may be the rims of impact craters-surmounted by a pink sky. Both impact and aeolian processes are evident. After dissipation of a small dust cloud stirred by the landing maneuvers, no subsequent signs of movement were detected on the landscape, and nothing has been observed that is indicative of macroscopic biology at this time and place.

Viking 2 lander began imaging the surface of Mars at Utopia Planitia on 3 September 1976. The surface is a boulder-strewn reddish desert cut by troughs that probably form a polygonal network. A plateau can be seen to the east of the spacecraft, which for the most probable lander location is approximately the direction of a tongue of ejecta from the crater Mie. Boulders at the lander 2 site are generally more vesicular than those near lander i. Fines at both lander sites appear to be very fine-grained and to be bound in a duricrust. The pinkish color of the sky, similar to that observed at the lander I site, indicates suspension of surface material. However, the atmospheric optical depth is less than that at the lander I site. After dissipation of a cloud of dust stirred during landing, no changes other than those stemming from sampling activities have been detected in the landscape. No signs of large organisms are apparent at either landing site.