We all know that Mt. Everest is the tallest
mountain on Earth, reaching 29,029 feet.
but how tall is that exactly?
If you stacked 10 Burj Khalifa’s on top
of each other, it would still be a few hundred
feet short.
Impressive huh?
Well, you might change your mind when I tell
you about the largest structure in our SOLAR
SYSTEM.
In the year 1971 during the Mars expedition
of the Mariner 9, astronauts discovered Olympus
Mons.
Olympus Mons is aptly named after the famous
dwelling of the Olympus gods in Greek Mythology.
This enormous volcano is roughly 25 km (16
miles) in length which nearly 3 TIMES taller
than our very own Mt. Everest, whose peak
is only 8.8 km (or 5.5 miles) above sea level,
if you need some help visualizing that - it’s
almost 2.5 times the length of the Marianas
Trench, the height of about 30 Burj Khalifa’s,
or 65 Empire State Buildings.
Not only is it tall, but this behemoth of
land mass dwarfs even its own siblings on
the red planet, covering an area the size
of the state of Arizona!
CURIOUS what that would look like on Earth?
This enormous Martian volcano soars above
its neighboring heaths and is located in the
Tharsis Montes region close to the Martian
equator.
It is one of the many gigantic volcanoes in
the region, 12 of which are 100 times larger
than their equivalents on earth.
Speaking of Earth, Hawaii's Mauna Loa claims
the title of the tallest volcano, with a total
length of 6.3 miles (10km), although its peak
only reaches (2.6 miles) 4.2 km above sea
level.
The volume enclosed by Olympus Mons is nearly
a hundred times that of the Mauna Loa.
Not only that, but the entire chain of the
Hawaiian Islands could comfortably fit inside
of it!
Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, which means
that instead of aggressively emitting molten
lava, it is shaped by lava gradually flowing
down its sides, and travels further before
cooling down, thereby forming a shield-like
shape.
As a result, the volcano has a low entrance,
with an average slope of only 5%.
Eruptions can last hundreds of years at a
time.
It has six misshapen craters, also known as
calderas, piling on top of each other to form
a depression at the peak that is about 85KM
(or 53 miles) in width.
These calderas appeared overtime when magma
chambers were emptied out of lava and collapsed,
unable to support the ground above it.
A varied depression surrounds the bottom of
the volcano as its enormous mass presses into
Mars’ crust.
Even though it took billions of years to form,
some areas of the volcano may only be a few
million years old, which is considered fairly
young, so it very well may be an active volcano,
ready to erupt again.
Its last eruption is estimated to have been
between 20 and 200 million years ago- around
the time when the dinosaurs existed.
But you might ask, why are the volcanos on
Mars so much taller than the ones on earth?
NASA explains that this is because of longer
lava flows which is likely due to a combination
of lower surface gravity as well as higher
eruption rates.
As a result, more lava piles up, and the volcano
grows taller.
Movement of tectonic plates also plays a large
part in this difference.
On both planets, hot spots of lava beneath
the crust stay in the same place, but on Earth,
let’s take the Hawaiian islands for example,
the plates glide across, so every eruption
formed a small island in a different spot,
On Mars, the crust stays fixed, so the lava
is able to pile up over millions of years
into one giant volcano.
Olympus Mons and similar volcanos on Mars
are so tall that they tower above the Martian
dust storms.
Interestingly enough, Olympus Mons was actually
observed by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli
in the late 1800s using an 8-inch telescope!
Technically, Olympus Mons is just the largest
PLANETARY mountain.
The recently discovered Rheasilvia mountain
on the asteroid Vesta, is thought to be a
mere 315 feet taller, which is about the length
of Big Ben, or a soccer pitch.
But it is so far away that even with satellite
observation, it can be difficult to measure
the exact height of the mountain until further
research is done.
So I guess, for now, Olympus Mons can still
hold onto the title as the king of mountains.
