On Mars, a volcano grew until it swallowed a country.
On Mars, a volcano grew until it swallowed a country. Olympus Mons stretches about 600 kilometres across its base — wide enough to cover France. From rim to rim, you'd be flying for over an hour in a jet before clearing its edge. And it rises roughly 22 kilometres high, around two and a half times the height of Everest. So gradual are its slopes that if you stood near the middle, the horizon would hide the edges entirely. You'd have no idea you were on a volcano at all. Mars made this possible through two quirks: weaker gravity than Earth, and crust that never shifts. No tectonic plates means lava just keeps piling onto the same spot, for billions of years. Earth's volcanoes never get that chance. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the solar system's stranger truths.