Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons (Latin for Mount Olympus) is a large shield volcano on the planet Mars. By one measure, it has a height of nearly 22 km (14 mi).[3 ] This makes it the tallest mountain on any planet in the Solar System (and, after the 2011 discovery of Rheasilvia Mons on 4 Vesta, the second largest mountain on any world known). It stands almost three times as tall as Mount Everest's height above sea level. Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during Mars's Amazonian Period. Olympus Mons had been known to astronomers since the late 19th century as the albedo feature Nix Olympica (Latin for "Olympic Snow"). Its mountainous nature was suspected well before space probes confirmed its identity as a mountain.[4 ]

The volcano is located in Mars's western hemisphere at approximately WikiMiniAtlas 18°39′N 226°12′E﻿ / ﻿18.65°N 226.2°E ﻿ / 18.65; 226.2 ,[1 ] just off the northwestern edge of the Tharsis bulge. The western portion of the volcano lies in the Amazonis quadrangle (MC-8) and the central and eastern portions in the adjoining Tharsis quadrangle (MC-9). Two impact craters on Olympus Mons have been assigned provisional names by the IAU. They are the 15.6 km (9.7 mi)-diameter Karzok crater (   WikiMiniAtlas  18°25′N 131°55′W﻿ / ﻿18.417°N 131.917°W ﻿ / 18.417; -131.917 ) and the 10.4 km (6.5 mi)-diameter Pangboche crater (    WikiMiniAtlas  17°10′N 133°35′W﻿ / ﻿17.167°N 133.583°W ﻿ / 17.167; -133.583 ).[5 ] The craters are notable for being two of several suspected source areas for shergottites, the most abundant class of Martian meteorites.[6 ]