Be sure to know the following:

• The three Martian eras, their sequence, rough time ranges, and main areological events
• Landscapes associated with the three different eras
• Crater density and size distribution as a key to dating Martian surfaces
• Why water vaporization can lead to the loss of water (perhaps even an ocean's worth) from Mars
• Comparison and contrast between "Mars Attacks!" (1996) and "War of the Worlds" (1953)
• Dominant water and carbon dioxide fluxes and Martian seasonality
• Vertical structure of the Martian atmosphere by the relationship between air temperatures and altitude
• Vertical structure of the atmosphere by the degree of mixing and of gravitational gas segregation
• Gaseous composition of the Martian atmosphere: Main gasses (say, top four)
• Why is nitrogen's isotope ratio of such interest in understanding the potential for a wet early Mars?
• The Martian "geographic grid" -- the most common system used today with + and - for north and south and 360° of longitude, running east -- be able to convert between the Earth system and the Mars system
• Characteristics of the main Martian regions, including their locations:
  • The great crustal dichotomy and the elevation, age, and rock-type differences between the northern third and the southern two-thirds
  • Valles Marineris and its subsidiary chasmata (including their locations with respect to one another) and Noctis Labyrinthus
  • Tharsis and its five main volcanoes
  • Elysium and its three main volcanoes
  • Thaumasia Montes and why this feature is not like other montes on Mars
  • evidence for and against plate tectonics on Mars
  • the polar ice caps and their similarities and differences in chemical composition
  • patterned ground (polygons) and its possible connection with permafrost
  • evidence for glaciation at relatively low latitudes in and around the Elysium Montes
  • why might sapping alcoves/channels/aprons evidencing liquid flow be found on poleward-facing slopes at high latitudes?
  • possible explanations for chaos terrain
  • the main impact basins: Hellas, Argyre, Isidis, Utopia
  • through which evidence is it argued that the Hellas Planitia impact struck at the very end of the Noachian era?
  • Vastitas Borealis and evidences for and against a Noachian ocean
  • Noachian landscapes: Noachis Terra, Arabia Terra, and Terra Sirenum
  • Hesperian landscapes: Hesperia Planum, Terra Tyrrhena, Aonia Terra, Margaritifer Terra, Syrtis Major
  • Amazonian landscapes: Amazonis Planitia, Utopia Planitia, Chryse Planitia, Acidalia Planitia
• Know the main types of landforms on Mars and the planetary gazetteer name for them (there's a table in my lecture notes)
• Be able to idenfity and differentiate various channel systems: possible dendritic fluvial valles (that look like Earth precipitation-fed channelized surface flow networks), sapping-fed systems, channels linking craters that may have had lakes in them, and the massive outflow channel systems that look like Earth's jökulhlaup features
• Know the main Martian weather features and the locations and seasons you can expect them (polar cyclones, dust devils/dust storms, mid-latitude wave systems, thermal tides, upslope-downslope breeze/wind systems) and how atmospheric clarity/dustiness affects them
• Be able to read the water phase diagram (it's in the Fourth Order viewgraphs, the X-Y graph showing the triple-point of water) to predict, generally, how water will behave in different temperature and pressure conditions
• Be able to look at a complex terrain on Mars and pick out some of the processes that might explain its many features
• Evidences for lakes in the southern highland craters

Tips:

• Do all the reading
• Make use of those map study guides, which I'll be collecting during the final
• Avail yourself of my lecture notes, which I put online and accessible from the home page: http://www.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/mars/
• I have put a link to that MOLA map that I labeled with lots of useful place names
• Make use of the viewgraphs: The final covers "Mars Planetary Basics" through to "Fourth Order of Relief"
• Read your colleagues' web efforts: I have taken one question from each of them
• The final is open everything, but you need to be familiar enough with everything to be able to find it when you're freaking out
• Studying with your colleagues is highly recommended: You can get hold of them to schedule a review session through BeachBoard, also linked to the course home page.