“Dad, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, right?”
“On Earth, yes. But the tallest mountain in the whole solar system isn’t even on Earth.”
“Then where is it?”
“Mars. It’s a volcano called Olympus Mons, and it’s over 22 kilometers tall.”
“How tall is Everest again?”
“About 8.8 kilometers. So Olympus Mons is about two and a half times taller than Everest.”
“Whoa, why does it get that big?”
“Mars doesn’t have plate tectonics like Earth does. On Earth, the plates under the ground keep shifting, so a volcano can’t stay in one spot for very long, it slowly drifts. That means it grows for a while and then gets carried away.”
“But Mars doesn’t do that?”
“Right, Mars’ ground doesn’t move. So one single volcano was able to keep erupting from the exact same spot for hundreds of millions of years, growing bigger and bigger without ever stopping.”
“Could you climb it?”
“It would take forever to actually walk up. The slope is so gentle that it’s less like a steep cliff and more like one enormous, wide hill. Its base alone is wider than some countries.”
“So it’s not really climbing, just a really, really long walk.”
“Exactly right. Although Mars’ air is so much thinner than Earth’s that you’d need an oxygen tank the whole way, that’s the real challenge.”
“Because Mars’ ground never moves, one single volcano could keep growing without ever stopping, and become the biggest mountain in the whole solar system.”
Your Turn Now
Share with someone today what you remember.
- What’s the name of the tallest mountain in the solar system?
- How much taller is it than Mount Everest?
- Why was the Mars mountain able to grow so big?
(Check when ready: 1. Olympus Mons. 2. About two and a half times taller. 3. Mars’ ground doesn’t move, so the volcano kept growing in the same spot.)
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