Likely from 1995 as well, likely for a geology paper:

Vital Statistics for a Red Planet:

Name: Mars
Orbit: Fourth planet from the Sun. Average distance of 227,392,000 km from the sun.
Size: 7th largest planet in solar system diameter, 6,786 km (Earth 12,756 km in diameter)
Length of year: 687 days
Length of day: 24 hours 37 minutes
Surface gravity (Earth = 1): 0.38
Composition: silicates, iron, surface minerals oxidized to rust red; carbon dioxide atmosphere
Mean surface temperature: -23 degrees Celsius (Earth +22 Celsius)
Atmospheric pressure on surface: 6.1 millibars (Earth 1 bar)
Number of natural satellites: 2 (Phobos & Deimos)

Setting the Stage:
Imagine instead of a casual walk in to class today that you are suddenly transported to the planet Mars. It is Tuesday, April 4th 1995 at 9:00 AM (Pacific standard time on Earth) laid out before you is the Valles Marineris in all it splendor the solar systems, biggest canyon. Standing atop its Southern rim you look north over its vastness and even though the air is colder and thinner than on Earth you cannot see the other side of the canyon over 120 km away. The gravity here is .38 that of Earth’s so you weigh just over a third what you do at home. You can jump several feet in the air with little difficulty. Luckily that transporter provided a space suit or else you would have died within minutes of arrival the temperature is -34 below zero and the air pressure is less than 2% that of Earth’s at sea level not only that but there is virtually no free oxygen in the atmosphere. As you watch your classmates play in the night air you can see the stars above don’t seem to twinkle as they do on Earth and there are more of them in the sky. The thinner atmosphere allows more light to reach the surface. But the surface of the planet is darker than a night on Earth. First of all there is less air to scatter the light. Secondly, there is no moon taking up several degrees of the sky and reflecting it back to the planet. Instead, two tiny moons are on the western and eastern horizons, their tiny shapes are virtually indistinguishable from the light from the stars in the sky, you're lucky you even spotted them they are so dark and small. Thankfully the sunlight is hitting them just right and Phobos is moving quite fast. At 9231 km away Phobos is quickly heading for the eastern horizon and finally sets at 9:34 AM. Deimos is moving much slower but is closer to the horizon. It isn’t moving towards the eastern horizon like Phobos though, instead it is heading for the western horizon at 9:49 AM Deimos sets in the East. Is it not slightly strange that Phobos and Deimos set on opposite horizons? In fact, it is just a trick of physics, Phobos and Deimos are both orbiting Mars in a counterclockwise direction (Looking from above the north pole down just as Earth’s Moon does. The reason that Deimos seems to be going the opposite direction is that Mars spins on its axis faster than Deimos orbits Mars. Mars completely revolves on its axis once every 24 hours and 37 minutes (A Martian day) while Deimos orbits Mars once every 30 hours and 21 minutes. Welcome to Mars a land of contrast.


The Moons of Mars Phobos and Deimos:
Asteroid Origins or Ring Remnants?
The planet Mars has two small moons which are roughly potato shaped. Named Phobos and Deimos after the Roman god Mars’ chariot horses, their names translate to Fear and Terror. Although these moons were discovered in 1877, they were described by several writers before that time. Phobos the bigger of the two measures 27 by 21 by 19 kilometers in diameter. Deimos is slightly over half Phobos’ size at 15 by 12 by 11 kilometers. Phobos is also the inner most in orbit around Mars averaging 9380 km from the surface. Deimos is further away orbiting in a more circular orbit at an average 23500 km. Interestingly both moons orbit directly above the equator and from the surface would seem to pass by each other. Like Earth’s Moon, both the moons of Mars are ‘locked on’ to Mars presenting the same side to Mars' surface creating from the surface the ‘dark sides of the moons’. Up close, both moons have nearly black surfaces witch only reflect 4 or 5 percent of the light hitting them witch makes them as dark as asphalt. Considering also that the sun is further away from Mars the light intensity is also lower finding Phobos and Deimos in the sky would be much harder than finding the Earth’s Moon. Their composition is generally believed to be similar if not identical to that of carbonaceous asteroids and meteorites rich in carbon compounds and chemically bonded water.
The uncanny resemblance between the Martian moons and the carbonaceous bodies native to the solar systems’ asteroid belt has led astrophysicists to believe that Mars’ moons are captured asteroids. Planetary scientist Bob Craddock of the (U.S.) National Air and Space Museum has proposed the theory that Phobos and Deimos are not in fact captured asteroids as it is generally agreed, but are instead remnants of an ancient ring system that may have orbited Mars after a huge meteroid crashed into the surface of the planet (4 billion years ago) throwing a ring of debris into an unstable orbit. Craddock’s ring theory is supported by what he calls the ‘odd elongated craters’ that are so different from those in the rest of the solar system. These craters are, Craddock theorizes, the result of the debris plowing in to the surface at a low angle, making them unlike meteoroid craters that tend to be round because most meteoroids tend to hit the planet head-on (not at a low angle). Craddock also cites the orbits of Mars’ two satellites as evidence of his theory. He believes because their orbits are nearly circular it is highly unlikely these moons are captured asteroids. There are several problems with this theory. The first is that it assumes that it would be difficult for an asteroid to become captured in a relatively stable orbit around a planet. In evidence for this we are to look at the other planets of the solar system how many of the terrestrial planets have asteroid like moons only Mars. However several gas giant planets have moons with asteroid-like dimensions. Furthermore we have strong evidence that at least some moons are captured into there orbits around planets: Triton for example a relatively large moon at 2,700 km, orbits Neptune in a retrograde orbit compared to all the other major moons in the solar system. This fact combined with the proximity of Mars to the asteroid belt (they are neighbors) would seem to show more evidence on the side of an asteroid origin for Mars’ moons. The asteroid origin is also supported by the fact that even if as the ring theory states that orbital capture is extremely difficult we can see that Phobos’ orbit is not stable and it is predicted through careful measurement that Phobos will spiral in to Mars within 100 million years. Deimos orbit seems to be more stable further from the surface and may even break free of Mars altogether. Taking all these facts in to account and the scientific principle to never complicate the simple when searching for answers what do you think happened? Phobos, the innermost and larger of the to moons is pocked and scarred by craters, large chunks of its surface have been blasted away by impacts. The largest crater named Stickney, stretches eight kilometers across the diameter of Phobos. Grooves that stretch in a parallel pattern around the moon radiate from Stickney. This may be evidence of the fracturing due to the colossal impact that created Stickney. Another theory suggests that the impact that created Stickney boiled off the water within the moon in just a few minutes creating the striations along its length. Interestingly any person standing on Phobos could easily jump off the planet and hang above its surface for several minutes before slowly returning to its surface.
Deimos is farther away from Mars and is less heavily cratered, upon it’s surface a relatively flat powder like surface is occasionally punctuated by house sized boulders. A golf ball or baseball could be put in to orbit of Phobos with a good swing and a solid hit. On Deimos if you picked up a 3 kilogram rock and then dropped it from a height of 1.45 meters it would take 30 seconds for the rock to fall to the planet's surface, this is 50 times longer than it would take on Earth.

Evidence for the ring
origins of Phobos and Deimos:
This artists rendition of what the asteroid belt
around Mars may have looked like a few billions of
years ago. Formed by an ancient collision this
theory proposes that Phobos and Deimos were
once a part of Mars’ surface and a ring that once
circled the planet has decayed leaving only
Phobos and diemos as its legacy.
History of Mars:
Mars was a god. Mars is also a planet. The planet was a god. The Babylonians and Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all considered several of our solar systems planets' gods. The Babylonians, Greeks and Romans named them. Going through several name changes but never a profession the planet we know as Mars has a long history. Changing from Nergal the Babylonian god of war, to Ares the Greek god of War, and finally becoming Mars the Roman god of War, the name has stuck since then. The observations of Mars were recorded in ancient days the wandering stars of Jupiter and Mars who traveled across the sky and then would reverse direction and then return on their previous course confounded the ancient astronomers, observation of the colour of Mars became apparent to the patient ancient astronomer, blood red, appropriate for a god of war. In the modern era there came to pass a certain mistake that began innocently enough and proceeded to take wild speculation based on virtually no facts to some of the highest levels seen in Earth’s history. In 1877 the same year of Phobos and Deimos’ discoveries Giovanni Schiaperelli reported in Italian that he had seen cannali through his telescope, when he looked at Mars. Canalis is the Italian word for channels but astronomers in the UK and U.S. had canali mistranslated to mean canals. The difference between the two words is very important. Channels are the paths that water naturally takes through the Earth. Canals are artificially made structures for the flow of water as a means of transportation. The existence of canals was therefore a conclusion that there was intelligent life on Mars. Wild speculation began at the forefront was Percival Lowell an American astronomer who published several articles and books on the canals of Mars constructing elaborate reasons and designs for what he had seen through his telescope. Lowell believed that Mars was a dying world and that the Martians constructed canals, to transport water for agriculture, from the poles of the planet to the equator. Lowell was of course completely wrong. There are no canals on Mars. Mars does have poles that are visible from Earth and is also seasonally plagued by global dust storms that darken the planet's surface for months at a time. These observations could help explain why for a long time people believed in an intelligent life form on Mars. A case of the Emperor’s new clothes if I ever heard one.
Olympus Mons and the Tharsis Ridge Volcanoes are Analogous to the
Hawaiian Islands chain of Volcanoes:
Olympus Mons is the name for the largest volcano on Mars. This monster of a volcano is also the largest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons translates to Mount Olympus the traditional home of the Greek and Roman gods. Well named, this Mountain far surpasses the original Mount Olympus in Greece and even Mt. Everest on Earth in sheer height. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano and characteristic of such is a characterized by a very flattened cone shape. Over most of its surface it’s far from steep, its great height is attained from great breadth. Its peak rises 25 km higher than the surrounding plain (the Tharsis ridge) and stretches to a diameter of eight hundred kilometers. It’s slope averages only six degrees making it an easy but long climb. Around the circumference of the volcano is a circular escarpment measuring 7 km high and which is virtually vertical in some areas. Dimensions of this pinnacle of mountain volcanoes will make future mountain climbers quake in their pressure suits. Atop the volcano, a gigantic caldera awaits future mountain climbers. The sheer size of this caldera is so large it could almost take Earth’s largest shield volcano Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii within its borders. Standing on one side of the caldera you could not see the other due to the distance between the rims and the curvature of the planet (the horizons proximity is much more pronounced on Mars).
The Hawaiian island chain of volcanoes is analogous to that of the Tharsis ridge chain. The formation of these volcanoes arises from a hotspot below the plate (the Pacific plate on Earth, the Mars global plate on Mars). As the plate moves over the mantle the hotspot stays still, so that new volcanoes are formed in a chain. Doubtless the Tharsis ridge volcanoes and Olympus Mons itself are above such a hotspot. Like their Earthly neighbors the Tharsis ridge volcanoes line up in the direction of travel over the hotspot.
The Atmosphere, Storms, Tornadoes and Waters of Mars:
Mars’ atmospheric pressure is around 1% of Earth’s. Made up of very different stuff than Earth’s air, Mars’ air is composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide, 1.8% nitrogen, 1.5% argon, 0.1% oxygen and 0.06% water vapor.
Evidence on the surface of the red planet proves Mars must have had a thicker atmosphere in the past. 3.5 billion years ago water flowed in a liquid form freely over the surface. The reason for this is that water cannot exist in a liquid state on Mars except in a very limited fashion and areas. The only thing that can give the flow of water to a planet like Mars is higher atmospheric pressure. Throughout the planet, but concentrated north of Valles Marineris evidence for ancient running water is present the telltale channels left by running water cut paths of least resistance to the lowlands of the north that may have once even been a shallow sea. We do have evidence for lakes (the water must run somewhere) which have sedimentary layers built up along the now dry shorelines. Sedimentary processes are more limited now on mars water is unable to run free so sedimentation must be dry.
The planet Mars is a desert world. Like Earth’s deserts the sands are omnipresent and just like on Earth sandstorms plague the desert. During normal conditions however, the weak winds of Mars are hard pressed to move a lot of sand. The formation of dunes is therefore a slower process on the red planet. But dunes are formed. From space probe photos high above the surface we can see tracts of land that are crisscrossed by regular dues of all the varieties found on Earth. Most of these dune covered areas are in the northern lowlands and near the southern pole here the land becomes mostly sand and even from high above the dunes can be seen between the frozen poles of the planet. The dunes are of the transverse variety near the northern pole and where sand supplies are limited they are longitudinal. Barchan (parabolic) dunes are harder to see from space because of the lack of rhythmical grouping.
Evidence has been found for tornadoes on mars where tracks in the sands have left their footprint, these whirlwinds are most likely to happen in the proximity of seasonal global dust storms like the one mariner 9 met upon arrival. These storms can last several months and can hide much of the planets landscape.
Weathering on mars is different from on Earth. The volcanoes of Mars the Valles Marineris and the other amazingly large geological structures are big and relatively unweathered for several reasons. First of all, the Tharsis ridge volcanoes are shield volcanoes; being such they tend to be very massive if not always the tallest. Secondly, Mars has little if any plate tectonic activity that explains how internal planetary pressures are released unevenly into the Tharsis ridge chain of volcanoes and Valles Marineris rift valley. Thirdly Mars has very little weathering compared with Earth. With no water currently running over its surface, a low pressure atmosphere and lack of precipitation traditional weathering takes a very long time on Mars. When weathering does occur it is often due to extraterrestrial (external to Mars) interference like meteorite and micrometeorite impacts. Fourth, because Mars’ gravity is only a third (approximately) that of Earth’s, less pulling down of structures is happening; outcrops or areas that would collapse in mass wasting on Earth can still stand in the Martian gravity. Finally, because there is no known subduction of plates on the red planet land masses are not recycled as they are on Earth.
Valles Marineris, Internal Workings and Tectonics of Mars:
When Mariner 9 first reached Mars it took photographs of a break in the planet's surface that puts the grand canyon to shame. This valley was named after Mariner 9 becoming the Valles Marineris. This canyon is up to 2 km deep and over 500 km wide and stretches 3000 km across the planet's surface. Compared with Earth’s Grand Canyon Valles Marineris is a giant at twice its depth, fourteen times its width and nine times as long. The reason for such a great gash in the planet was unclear for quite a while and the jury is still out, however several theories have been combined together to form a unified theory that has a little of everything in it. Mars has only one plate, unlike Earth that has several large ones and dozens of smaller ones. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey believe that Valles Marineris is a combination valley. Like the rift valley of East Africa the plate seems to be attempting to break apart, trying to eventually form a diverging plate boundary, similar to the Mid-Atlantic ridge on Earth. However, it is also important to note that there was in the past water flowing through from the West to the East and pouring out towards the North in the distant past. Unlike the grand canyon however it is not solely due to water erosion. Since the free liquid water on Mars has disappeared mass wasting along the borders of the valley has contributed to its size widening it out. It is unclear with the available data weather tectonic or volcanic activity are still happening on the planet. Indirectly we have evidence. Due to the fact that the atmosphere is less dense than it was in the past (a few billions of years ago) we can assume tectonic and volcanic activity have if not stopped at least slowed down a lot since the atmosphere for Mars came from volcanic releases. Mars has no magnetic field of its own. It seems to use some of the Sun’s magnetic shielding for itself in a complex way, but its internal magnetism seems to have died, if indeed it ever had one. With little crustal movement, eons worth of volcanic eruptions have piled up in the same area (Tharsis ridge) that only a thick crust to support . The crust of Mars is thought to be 150 miles thick and the planets core to be between 800 and 1300 miles in diameter. Such a thick crust is not helpful to plate breakup.