Safekipedia

Olympus Mons

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A stunning view of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system, located on the planet Mars.

Mars has a very tall mountain called Olympus Mons. It is a big volcano and the tallest mountain we know in our whole Solar System. Olympus Mons stands about 21 kilometers high. That is more than two and a half times taller than Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth!

Olympus Mons is part of a place called Tharsis Montes on Mars. People first saw something bright on Mars in the late 1800s. They called it "Olympic Snow." Later, space probes showed it was a huge mountain.

Scientists named two big craters on Olympus Mons. Learning about Olympus Mons helps us understand more about volcanoes and how mountains form on other planets. Olympus Mons is as wide as the country of Italy. It looks like the big volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands, with gentle slopes that spread out far from its peak.

Images

A diagram showing the height changes of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in our solar system, on Mars.
Picture of young and old lava flows on Mars, showing how volcanic activity shapes the planet’s surface.
A scientific image showing lava flows on the surface of Mars, captured by NASA's HiRISE camera.
A detailed scientific image of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system, located on Mars.
A detailed image of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in our solar system, located on Mars.
A colorful map showing the huge volcano Olympus Mons on Mars, the largest volcano in our solar system.
A scenic view of Olympus Rupes, a large cliff feature in the Tharsis region of Mars, captured by NASA's THEMIS camera.
A volcano on Mars called Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in our solar system.

Related articles

Mars
Mount Everest
Tharsis Montes
Italy
Hawaiian Islands

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Olympus Mons, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.