Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons is reserved for the mightiest mountain.

Olympus Mons is an extremely large volcano located on the surface of Mars, and it is a shield volcano created by lava piling.
Despite the belief that it is one of Mars’ more recent volcanoes, Olympus Mons is the largest discovered volcano in the known solar system.
Olympus Mons sits approximately 22 kilometres (13.7 miles) high above datum (zero level), or 26 kilometres (16 miles) above the plains, while Earth’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest is around a third the size, sitting 8.8 km (5.5 miles) above sea level.
Olympus Mons has a diameter slightly larger than 600 kilometres (373 miles) and the volcano’s name can be translated from Latin into ‘Mount Olympus’.
The location of Olympus Mons is situated in part of Mars’ dustiest areas, which, among other reasons, renders the site unsuitable for rover analysis.

Olympus Mons’ considerable height was predicted during the mid to late 1800s, by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, and possibly others.
The enormous size of Olympus Mons is thought to be due to the lack of strong gravitational pulls and tectonic plates that exist on Earth, that normally prevent lava from piling significantly.
When the American probe Mariner 9 circled Mars from late 1971 to late 1972, Olympus Mons’ high peak was confirmed, and its volcanic nature was determined.
‘Olympus Mons’ was originally named ‘Nix Olympia’, or ‘Olympic Snow’ when translated from Latin, until further details were returned from the Mariner 9 probe.
Olympus Mons is a similar colouring to the surface of planet Mars, a reddish rusty brown colour.

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