Olympus Mons

This article is about the Martian shield volcano. For the mountain in Greece, see Mount Olympus. For other uses, see Olympus.
Olympus Mons
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Mars Express orbiter view of Olympus Mons with its summit caldera, escarpment, and aureole
Feature typeShield volcano
LocationWestern Tharsis Rise, Mars
Coordinates18°39′N 226°12′E / 18.650°N 226.200°E / 18.650; 226.200[1]
Peak21.9 km (13.6 mi) above datum[2]
26 km (16 mi) local relief above plains[3]
DiscovererMariner 9
EponymLatin – Mount Olympus

Olympus Mons (/əˌlɪmpəs ˈmɒnz, 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. It is Mars's tallest volcano, its tallest planetary mountain, and is approximately tied with Rheasilvia on Vesta as the tallest mountain currently discovered in the Solar System. It is associated with the volcanic region of Tharsis Montes.[6][7][8] It last erupted 25 million years ago.[9]

Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during the Martian Hesperian Period with eruptions continuing well into the Amazonian Period. It has been known to astronomers since the late 19th century as the albedo feature Nix Olympica (Latin for "Olympic Snow"), and its mountainous nature was suspected well before space probes confirmed it as a mountain.[10]

Two impact craters on Olympus Mons have been assigned provisional names by the International Astronomical Union: the 15.6-kilometre-diameter (9.7 mi) Karzok crater and the 10.4-kilometre-diameter (6.5 mi) Pangboche crater.[11] They are two of several suspected source areas for shergottites, the most abundant class of Martian meteorites.[12]

  1. ^ "Olympus Mons". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. (Center Latitude: 18.65°, Center Longitude: 226.20°)
  2. ^ "Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter: Experiment summary" (PDF).
  3. ^ Neil F. Comins (2012). Discovering the Essential Universe. W. H. Freeman. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-4292-5519-6.
  4. ^ "Olympus". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. "Mons". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
  5. ^ Plescia, J. B. (2004). "Morphometric Properties of Martian Volcanoes". Journal of Geophysical Research. 109 (E3): E03003. Bibcode:2004JGRE..109.3003P. doi:10.1029/2002JE002031.
  6. ^ "Mars Exploration: Multimedia".
  7. ^ Borgia, A.; Murray, J. (2010). Is Tharsis Rise, Mars, a Spreading Volcano? in What Is a Volcano?, E. Cañón-Tapia and A. Szakács, Eds.; Geological Society of America Special Paper 470, 115–122, doi:10.1130/2010.2470(08).
  8. ^ "Mars impact crater or supervolcano?".
  9. ^ "Olympus Mons: The Largest Volcano in the Solar System". Space.com. 9 December 2017.
  10. ^ Patrick Moore 1977, Guide to Mars, London (UK), Cutterworth Press, p. 96 [ISBN missing]
  11. ^ "New names on Olympus Mons". USGS. Archived from the original on 2006-06-30. Retrieved 2006-07-11.
  12. ^ Frankel, C.S. (2005). Worlds on Fire: Volcanoes on the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Venus and Io; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, p. 160. ISBN 978-0-521-80393-9.