The Largest Volcano in the Solar System

The tallest peak in the solar system coincidentally (or so we assume!) is also the tallest and largest volcano in the solar system! Located on Mars, Olympus Mons stands at a wooping 27 kilometers! This is approximately three times as tall as Mount Everest. Not to mention, Olympus Mons is not just extremely tall, it is also extremely wide, with 600 kilometers in diameter.

On May 26th, 2004, the Mars Express (a satellite circling Mars) took a picture of Olympus Mons directly looking down from its peak:

Picture Link
This overhead view shows the summit crater area of the volcano, with 102 kilometer wide, 3 kilometer deep caldera pits!

An interesting thing to understand is that Olympus Mon has a very shallow slope, with an outer region with around 5 degrees of slope angle. This means that as long as you are not on any slope of the volcano, you can never see the top since Mar's surface curvature will prevent it from coming into view.

Scientists suggest that one of the reasons why this volcano of such magnitude was created on Mars is that Mars has no tectonic plate activity. Imagine a non-moving crust on a hotspot. This allows for the lava to rush out of the crust without any interruption for hundreds, if not thousands of years. This century, or millennium buildup may be the cause of this gigantic volcano.

In fact, this volcano was so massive that astronomers in the 19th century were able to distinguish it from the normal martian atmosphere!

Click here to read more about Olympus Mons!