Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is a shield volcano on the planet, Mars. It is the tallest volcano and mountain in the Solar System. Its last eruption was 25 million years ago.[1]
Size
Olympus Mons is 27 km (17 mi) high.[2] This is three times taller than the highest mountain on Earth, Mount Everest.
Olympus Mons Media
Colorized topographic map of Olympus Mons and its surrounding aureole, from the MOLA instrument of Mars Global Surveyor
Olympus Rupes, the northern part of Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons (top) and the Hawaiian island chain (bottom), at the same scale.
Mars Global Surveyor image showing lava flows of different ages at the base of Olympus Mons. The flat plain is the younger flow. The older flow has lava channels with levees along the edges. Levees are quite common to lava flows on Mars.
Lava flows on Olympus Mons with older and younger flows labeled, as viewed by HiRISE during the HiWish program
Calderas on the summit of Olympus Mons. The youngest calderas form circular collapse craters. Older calderas appear as semicircular segments because they are transected by the younger calderas.
Oblique view of Olympus Mons, from a Viking image mosaic overlain on MOLA altimetry data, showing the volcano's asymmetry. The view is from the NNE; vertical exaggeration is 10×. The wider, gently sloping northern flank is to the right. The more narrow and steeply sloping southern flank (left) has low, rounded terraces, features interpreted as thrust faults.
Detailed THEMIS daytime infrared image mosaic of Olympus Mons
References
- ↑ "Olympus Mons: The Largest Volcano in the Solar System". Space.com.
- ↑ "What are the highest and lowest points on the surface of Mars". NASA. Archived from the original on 2016-01-31. Retrieved 2009-05-17.