Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 .
The solar system's tallest mountain is possibly the Olympus Mons on Mars with an altitude of 21.9 to 26 km. The central peak of Rheasilvia on the asteroid Vesta is also a candidate to be the tallest, with an estimated at up to between 20 and 25 km from peak to base.
Olympus Mons and its associated lava flows and aureole deposits form another distinct subprovince of the Tharsis region. This subregion is about 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) across. It lies off the main topographic bulge, but is related to the volcanic processes that formed Tharsis. [10] Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large Tharsis volcanoes.
However, the largest volcano on the planet, Olympus Mons, is thought to have formed when the plates were not moving. Olympus Mons may have formed just after the plate motion stopped. The mare-like plains on Mars are roughly 3 to 3.5 billion years old. [72] The giant shield volcanoes are younger, formed between 1 and 2 billion years ago.
The huge shield volcano Olympus Mons lies off the main bulge, at the western edge of the province. The extreme massiveness of Tharsis has placed tremendous stress on the planet's lithosphere . As a result, immense extensional fractures ( grabens and rift valleys ) radiate outward from Tharsis, extending halfway around the planet.
Illustration of the shadow zone of a P-wave for Earth. S-waves don't penetrate the outer core. A marsquake is a quake which, much like an earthquake, is a shaking of the surface or interior of the planet Mars.
Individual mountains like record holding Olympus Mons (26 km (85,000 ft)) can affect local weather but larger weather effects are due to the larger collection of volcanoes in the Tharsis region. One unique repeated weather phenomenon involving mountains is a spiral dust cloud that forms over Arsia Mons.
Tharsis contains many volcanoes, including Olympus Mons, the tallest known volcano in the Solar System. Notice Ceraunius Tholus, although it looks small, it is about as high as Earth's Mount Everest. The Olympica Fossae are a set of troughs in the Tharsis quadrangle of Mars at 25° north latitude and 114.1° west longitude.