Olympus Mons Volcano: The Lava Giant Of The Solar System

Amazing Astronomy shared a picture of Mars’s Olympus Mons volcano the largest volcano in the solar system on their Twitter handle.

Mars' Olympus Mons volcano is 26 km high (3x the height of Mt. Everest) and covers an area the size of Arizona. pic.twitter.com/zqulcHEJ3W

— Amazing Astronomy (@MAstronomers) January 22, 2023

The Mars’ Olympus Mons volcano is 26 km high which is 3x the height of Mt. Everest and covers an area approximately the size of Arizona. It is the largest volcano in the solar system in the Tharsis Montes region of Mars.

Olympus Mons is a shield volcano 624 km (374 mi) in diameter (approximately the same size as the state of Arizona), 25 km (16 mi) high, and is rimmed by a 6 km (4 mi) high scarp. A caldera 80 km (50 mi) wide is located at the summit of Olympus Mons. To compare, the largest volcano on Earth is Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa is a shield volcano 10 km (6.3 mi) high and 120 km (75 mi) across. The volume of Olympus Mons is about 100 times larger than that of Mauna Loa.

The significant difference between the volcanoes on Earth and Mars is their size. Volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars are 10 to 100 times larger than those anywhere on Earth. One of the reasons for the huge size of volcanos on Mars is that the crust on Mars doesn’t move the way it does on Earth. The crust remains stationary and the lava piles up in one, very large volcano.