There's a volcano on Mars that makes Everest look like a hill.
There's a volcano on Mars that makes Everest look like a hill. Olympus Mons rises about 22 kilometres — roughly two and a half times the height of Everest. Stack that up and let the number sit for a moment. Now consider its width: around 600 kilometres across. If you dropped it onto Europe, it would swallow a country whole. You wouldn't even know you were standing on a volcano if you were at its base — the curve of the planet would hide the summit beyond the horizon. It grew this colossal because Mars has low gravity and no shifting tectonic plates. The crust just sat still whilst runny lava piled up, layer by layer, over billions of years. No dramatic explosions. Just relentless, quiet accumulation. The result is the largest volcano we have ever found anywhere in the solar system. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe, one extraordinary fact at a time.