The Biggest Volcano in The Solar System May Once Have Been an Island
27 July 2023
By MICHELLE STARR
Olympus Mons depicted as a volcanic island. (A.Hildenbrand/Geops/CNRS)
The biggest volcano in the Solar System could once have been an island in a vast sea, new research has found.
When Mars was young, and soggy, billions of years ago, the colossal Olympus Mons may have resembled Stromboli or Savai'i, but on a much larger scale.
A new analysis shows similarities with active volcanic islands here on Earth, adding to a growing body of evidence about Mars' watery past.
"Here we show that the Olympus Mons giant volcano shares morphological similarities with active volcanic islands on Earth where major constructional slope breaks systematically occur at the sea-air transition in response to sharp lava viscosity contrasts," writes a team led by geoscientist Anthony Hildenbrand of Paris-Saclay University in France.
"We propose that the upper rim of the 6-kilometer high concentric main escarpment surrounding Olympus Mons most likely formed by lava flowing into liquid water when the edifice was an active volcanic island during the late Noachian–early Hesperian."
Color-coded topography map of Olympus Mons. White is the highest elevation, blue the lowest. (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G. Neukum)
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-biggest-volcano-in-the-solar-system-may-once-have-been-an-island
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