How many feet is olympus mons

John Brady at Astronomy Central shows, in the image below, what this gargantuan feature would look like if it were on the continent of North America — it would completely cover the state of Arizona! Like the volcanoes that formed the Hawaiian islands, Olympus Mons is a shield volcano , which is named after its shape, which resembles a warrior's shield.

Shield volcanoes erupt lava that flows more easily than lava from some other eruptions, which means the lava travels a further distance before cooling and hardening giving shield volcanoes their distinctive shape, which you can clearly see in the NASA image below:. While some scientists think that this last eruption on Olympus Mons marks the last breath of volcanic activity on Mars, others suggest this monstrous volcano is still active despite being dormant for millions of years.

A scary thought when you consider the volcano's colossal size. Olympus Mons is the largest planetary mountain in the solar system, but there's a mountain on the asteroid, Vesta, that is the largest mountain around.

Olympus Mons is huge. Thanks to a good telescope, it is even possible to spot Mons Olympus on the Martian surface, the tallest volcano in our solar system. Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain from base to peak at more than 33, feet [10, meters]. Olympus Mons is a huge volcano, but hardly big enough to rip a planet apart. If anything, it made Mars feel better! I figure that while on the surface it can be pretty violent, down under the surface of Mars it has a LOT of built up pressure being relieved by the eruption.

K2, at 8, metres 28, ft above sea level, is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest at 8, metres 29, ft.

That puts the total height of Mauna Kea at about 33, feet — nearly a mile taller than Everest. Problem 3 — Which planet has the atmosphere with the greatest percentage of Oxygen? The meteorites were blown into space when a massive rock crashed into the planet 11 million years ago.

Another group of 11 Martian meteorites revealed that the volcanoes were active even longer. While 10 were only million years old, an eleventh, NWA , was found to be 2. The volcanoes in Tharsis Montes are so large that they tower above the seasonal Martian dust storms. Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli , who studied the Martian surface intensively in the late 19th century, observed the enormous features from Earth using an 8-inch 22 centimeter telescope.

When NASA's Mariner 9 arrived at the red planet in , it was able to pick out the tops of the volcanoes above the storms. While no rovers have yet made the trek to the Martian mountains, that hasn't stopped many from dreaming about exploration. So while it might be awhile before you can physically climb the massive volcano, you may be able to at least explore it visually.

In fact, some scientists have used the High Resolution Stereo Camera installed on the European Mars Express orbiter to create a mosaic and terrain model of the volcano. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community space. Nola Taylor Tillman is a contributing writer for Space. She loves all things space and astronomy-related, and enjoys the opportunity to learn more.

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