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.

Why is Olympus Mons higher than mountains on Earth?

The extraordinary size of Olympus Mons is likely because Mars lacks mobile tectonic plates. Unlike on Earth, the crust of Mars remains fixed over a stationary hotspot, and a volcano can continue to discharge lava until it reaches an enormous height.

Is the top of Olympus Mons in space?

The atmosphere on Mars is thin to begin with, but at the summit of Olympus Mons, it is only 8\% of the normal martian atmospheric pressure. That is equivalent to 0.047\% of Earth’s pressure at sea level. It’s not quite sticking up into space, but it’s pretty darn close.

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.

How does Olympus Mons compare with mountains on Earth?

Olympus Mons rises three times higher than Earth’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, whose peak is 5.5 miles above sea level. A cliff, or escarpment, surrounds the outer edge of the volcano, reaching as high as 6 miles (10 km) above the surrounding area. (The cliff alone is about as tall as Mauna Loa.)

How does Olympus Mons compare to Everest?

Olympus Mons rises three times higher than Earth’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, whose peak is 5.5 miles above sea level. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano. Six collapsed craters, known as calderas, stack on top of one another to create a depression at the summit that is 53 miles wide (85 km).

Does Olympus Mons erupt?

Olympus Mons is a shield volcano. Rather than violently spewing molten material, shield volcanoes are created by lava slowly flowing down their sides. As such, Olympus Mons may still be an active volcano with the potential to erupt.

What is significant about Olympus Mons quizlet?

It is the largest volcano in the solar system. In comparison to a volcano in the U.S the volume of Olympus Mons is 100 times larger than Mauna Loa. Which is the largest shield volcano on Earth.

What is the Olympus Mons explain one fact about it?

Olympus Mons is a shield volcano 624 km (374 mi) in diameter (approximately the same size as the state of Arizona), 25 km (16 mi) high, and is rimmed by a 6 km (4 mi) high scarp. In fact, the entire chain of Hawaiian islands (from Kauai to Hawaii) would fit inside Olympus Mons!

Can you see Olympus Mons from Earth?

Thanks to a good telescope, it is even possible to spot Mons Olympus on the Martian surface, the tallest volcano in our solar system. It isn’t easy to see the mountain itself, but you can sometimes see white clouds of carbon-dioxide wrapped around its summit caldera.

What type of eruption does Olympus Mons have?

By some estimates, the most recent large volcanic eruption at Olympus Mons occurred only 25 million years ago. The oldest activity at Olympus Mons could be much older than this and would have been buried by younger lava flows. The caldera of Olympus Mons is the depression near the top center of the image.

What is one important way in which both the moon and Mercury are different from Earth quizlet?

The Moon is principally composed of silicate rocks, whereas Earth has more metals and volatile compounds. Earth has an iron core, but the Moon does not. Earth has liquid water in its surface layer, but the Moon does not. Mercury contains substantially more metals than the Moon, with a significant iron-nickel core.