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The western hemisphere of Mars is dominated by a massive volcano-tectonic complex known as the Tharsis region or the Tharsis bulge. This immense, elevated structure is thousands of kilometers in diameter and covers up to 25% of the planet's surface. [23]
Olympus Mons (/ ə ˌ l ɪ m p ə s ˈ m ɒ n z, oʊ-/; [4] Latin for 'Mount Olympus') is a large shield volcano on Mars.It is over 21.9 km (13.6 mi; 72,000 ft) high as measured by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), [5] about 2.5 times the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level.
Tharsis (/ ˈ θ ɑːr s ɪ s /) is a vast volcanic plateau centered near the equator in the western hemisphere of Mars. [note 1] The region is home to the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, including the three enormous shield volcanoes Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons, which are collectively known as the Tharsis Montes.
Tharsis is a land of great volcanoes. Olympus Mons is the tallest known volcano in the Solar System; it is 100 times larger than any volcano on Earth. Ascraeus Mons and Pavonis Mons are at least 200 miles across and are over six miles above the plateau that they sit on—and, the plateau is three to four miles above the zero altitude of Mars. [4]
For comparison, the tallest volcano on Earth, Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is about 120 km (75 mi) across and stands 9 km (30,000 ft) above the ocean floor. [3] The Tharsis Montes volcanoes lie near the equator, along the crest of a vast volcanic plateau called the Tharsis region or Tharsis bulge.
Scientists may have pinpointed a massive, oddly shaped volcano taller than Mount Everest on the surface of Mars — and it has been hiding in plain sight for decades, according to new research.
Alba Mons (formerly and still occasionally known as Alba Patera, a term that has since been restricted to the volcano's summit caldera; [2] also initially known as the Arcadia ring [3]) is a volcano located in the northern Tharsis region of the planet Mars. It is the biggest volcano on Mars in terms of surface area, with volcanic flow fields ...
The base of the volcano is buried by young (Amazonian-aged) lava flows presumably from the Tharsis Montes, so the true size of the edifice cannot be accurately determined. Estimates of the thickness of lava burying the base of Tharsis Tholus range from 500 m [6] to 3.5 km. [11] Most of the volcano's surface is mantled with a thick layer of fine ...