Encyclopedia > Olympus Mons

  Article Content

Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons (Latin, "Mount Olympus") is the tallest known mountain in our solar system, located on the planet Mars. The central ediface[?] is 27 kilometres (88,600 feet) high and 540 km (335 miles) in width, with a crater that is 85 km (53 miles) in diametre.

Olympus Mons is an apparently extinct shield volcano, the result of highly fluid magma flowing out of volcanic vents over a long period of time, and is much wider than it is tall; the average slope of Olympus Mons' flanks is very gradual. The Hawaiian islands are an example of similar shield volcanoes on a smaller scale; see Mauna Loa.

Olympus Mons is located in the Tharsis bulge[?], a huge swelling in the Martian surface that bears numerous other large volcanic features. Among them are a chain of lesser shield volcanoes including Arsia Mons[?], Pavonis Mons[?] and Ascraeus Mons[?], which are small only in comparison to Olympus Mons itself.

Olympus Mons is located at approximately 135°W by 20°N.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Jamesport, New York

... of age or older. The median age is 43 years. For every 100 females there are 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 97.9 males. The media ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 26.6 ms