The greatest of all: Vulcan Olympus Mons
Of all the known volcanoes in the solar system, Olympus Mons is the largest. It is located on Mars and is so tall that it almost rises out of the Martian atmosphere. Admittedly, the atmosphere of Mars is quite miserable, rare and shallow.
It is not easy to say how high the Olympus Mons is because there are no oceans and seas on Mars to measure the altitude. That is why you will find more information about the height of this volcano in different Astro-literature.
It is 21 kilometers high from some mean height of the surface of Mars, but if you measure from the immediate surroundings of Mars, then it rises a full 26 kilometers up. The highest mountain on Earth is, you know for sure, Mount Everest, which is 8.8 kilometers above sea level.
If we look from the base of a mountain to its top, then Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the highest mountain (in other words, it is also a volcano) because measured in this way, it is 9.1 kilometers – seen from the base, which is 4895 meters below the surface of the ocean.
But Mount Olympus Mons occupies a huge area of about 300,000 square kilometers and if it were on Earth, it would cover the area of one Poland or say Spain.
It is surrounded by steep cliffs about six kilometers high, but after that the mountain is almost a plain. The slopes are initially inclined at an angle of only 2 or 3 degrees.
Later it becomes a bit steeper, but only 10 degrees and with a protective suit (because of the rare, poisonous and cold atmosphere) it would not be difficult to climb to the top.
“Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, and shield volcanoes mean that it spews massive amounts of lava, rather than simply blowing its summit in a catastrophic eruption. The largest volcanoes on Earth are also shield volcanoes. This allows them to grow slowly over time.
The volcano Olympus Mons is 3.5 billion years old, which means that it formed early in the history of Mars. And it has been active for hundreds of millions of years – far longer than any volcano on Earth has been active.“
Now Olympus Mons is calm. It has been dormant for the past 25 million years.
Olympus Mons can also be seen from Earth, but for that you need a clear view of Mars, that it is therefore a perfectly clear night, that Mars is in opposition (position opposite the Sun), and that you have an excellent telescope at your disposal.
The first to notice this volcano was Giovanni Schiaparelli, the famous Italian astronomer (1835-1910), the director of the Milan Observatory, which was recorded in the history of astronomy primarily for the observation and description of “channels” on Mars.
In 1879, Schiaparelli noticed the white peak of the mountain, which was initially named Snowy Olympus, i.e. Latin Nix Olypica because at that time it was believed that Mars was much more similar to Earth than it actually is and that its high mountains were covered with snow.
And where did the name Olympus come from?
Well, according to mythology, Mount Olympus in Greece is the place where the gods of ancient Greece resided!
