Table of Contents
- 1 What if Olympus Mons was on earth?
- 2 Is Olympus Mons a supervolcano?
- 3 How long would it take to walk Olympus Mons?
- 4 What would happen to Mars if Olympus Mons erupted?
- 5 What caused Olympus Mons to go extinct?
- 6 What is the volcanic history of Olympus Mons?
- 7 How tall is Olympus Mons?
- 8 What are the three types of deposits at Olympus Mons?
What if Olympus Mons was on earth?
Olympus Mons would be many times more powerful than any volcano on Earth. Any eruption from Olympus Mons will cause global disaster, killing billions. It is possible everyone would die without an underground shelter, from lack of food.
Is Olympus Mons a supervolcano?
Olympus Mons is a shield volcano on Mars about the size of the state of Arizona, and the largest volcano in the solar system. At its summit is a caldera 50 miles wide. Scientists believe this caldera, Eden Patera, on Mars is an ancient supervolcano.
Is Olympus Mons twice as tall as Mount Everest?
Olympus Mons is about two and a half times Mount Everest’s height above sea level. It is the largest and highest mountain and volcano of the Solar System, and is associated to the Tharsis Montes, a large volcanic region on Mars.
How long would it take to walk Olympus Mons?
Olympus Mons has such a shallow incline, only ~5\%, that it’s not so much a climb as a walk. Since it’s 600 km across at a walking speed of 5 km/hour it would take 60 hours or about a week at a reasonable numbers of hours per day to walk to the center.
What would happen to Mars if Olympus Mons erupted?
It wouldn’t be a danger to the planet Mars as Olympus Mons isn’t capable of erupting in the first place. It’s inactive because the planet Mars itself is geologically inactive due to its mantle and core having solidified a long time ago.
Why is Olympus Mons important?
Olympus Mons holds the title for tallest mountain in the solar system, and it is the second tallest mountain in the Universe. It likely became so large because Mars does not have tectonic plates. The volcano is located in Mars’s western hemisphere near the uplifted Tharsis bulge region.
What caused Olympus Mons to go extinct?
On Earth, the hot spots remain stationary but crustal plates are moving above them. The Hawaiian islands result from the northwesterly movement of the Pacific plate over a stationary hotspot producing lava. As the plate moves over the hotspot, new volcanoes are formed and the existing ones become extinct.
What is the volcanic history of Olympus Mons?
The volcanic history of Olympus Mons spans nearly the entire martian geologic record (Werner et al., 2009), and has been deduced based on crater retention ages of surface units on, and around, the volcano.
What would you see on Mars if you could visit Olympus Mons?
If you could visit Mars and stand on the top of the Olympus Mons you would find the calderas spectacular. However, you would have no idea from just looking around you that you were on the top of a huge mountain. Olympus Mons is so large and its slope so gentle (only about 5 degrees) that everything you see around you would be part of the mountain.
How tall is Olympus Mons?
It is33,480 feet high (6.3 miles or 10.3 km) but most of it is underwater. Mt. Everest is much smaller with a base to peak height of only 15,300 feet (2.9 miles or 10.2 km). In either case Olympus Mons with a base to peak height of 14 miles dwarfs them both.
What are the three types of deposits at Olympus Mons?
Three main types of deposits are present at Olympus Mons, namely the aureole deposits, lava flow deposits and glacial deposits. Here, we will investigate each of these deposits, as well as the structure of the summit caldera, and relate the observed morphologies to the style of volcanic activity.