Olympus Mons facts for kids

Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons is a shield volcano on Mars. It is the tallest volcano, and mountain, in the solar system.

Size

Olympus Mons is 27 km (17 mi) high. This is three times taller than the highest mountain on Earth, Mount Everest.

Olympus Rupes, the northern part of Olympus Mons.
Colorized topographic map of Olympus Mons and its surrounding aureole, from the MOLA instrument of Mars Global Surveyor.
Mars Global Surveyor image of clouds over Tharsis. Olympus Mons is in the upper left.
Topographic map of Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons (top) and the Hawaiian island chain (bottom), at the same scale.
Mars Global Surveyor image showing lava flows of different ages at the base of Olympus Mons. The flat plain is the younger flow. The older flow has lava channels with levees along the edges. Levees are quite common to lava flows on Mars.
Lava flows on Olympus Mons with older and younger flows labeled, as viewed by HiRISE during the HiWish program.
Calderas on the summit of Olympus Mons. The youngest calderas form circular collapse craters. Older calderas appear as semicircular segments because they are transected by the younger calderas.
Oblique view of Olympus Mons, from a Viking image mosaic overlain on MOLA altimetry data, showing the volcano's asymmetry. The view is from the NNE; vertical exaggeration is 10×. The wider, gently sloping northern flank is to the right. The more narrow and steeply sloping southern flank (left) has low, rounded terraces, features interpreted as thrust faults. The volcano's basal escarpment is prominent.
Detailed THEMIS daytime infrared image mosaic of Olympus Mons.