What is the largest volcano in the solar system? According to Nasa.gov, the largest volcano in the Solar System is a shield volcano named Olympus Mons and it’s located on Mars. Olympus Mons is the 2nd tallest mountain in the solar system and the tallest planetary mountain in our Solar System.
Olympus Mons is located near the Martian Equator in the Tharsis Montes region – a volcanic region with 12 giant volcanoes. Despite taking billions of years to form, Olympus Mons is still one of the youngest of the volcanoes on Mars.
Olympus Mons measures 25 kilometers (16 miles) tall and 624 kilometers (374 miles) in diameter. The volcano features a caldera that spans 80 km (50 mi). To put this in perspective, Olympus Mons’ footprint is about the size of Arizona. It is almost 3x’s the height of Mount Everest. And it is roughly 100x’s larger than Mauna Loa, which is the largest volcano on Earth.
Olympus Mons was first identified by astronomers in the late 19th century. Giovanni Schiaparelli spotted the giant mountain using an 8 inch telescope (Space.com)! More info was learned about the largest volcano in the Solar System by the Mariner 9 spacecraft as it orbited Mars during a global dust storm in 1971.
The endless mountains of Planet Earth are enough to keep any human being busy for multiple lifetimes. But maybe someday someone will get to hike, climb, or ski from the summit of Olympus Mons on Mars or some other far flung mountains that no one’s ever heard of. As they say, space is the final frontier…
To learn more about the largest volcano in the solar system, visit the following sources:
Hopefully these other-worldly facts might win you a pitcher of beer at your next trivia night!
