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Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest known volcano in the Solar System: more than 21 km high and about 600 km wide, covering roughly the area of Italy. It is a shield volcano, built from countless flows of runny lava that spread into broad, gentle slopes.

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Its slopes are gentle, about 5% on average. At the top lies a group of six overlapping calderas, collapsed craters that together measure about 60 by 80 km and reach 3.2 km deep, and around its base runs a cliff up to 8 km high. Mars helps volcanoes grow this big: its gravity is weaker, and its crust does not move in plates, so the ground stays over the same hot spot and lava keeps piling up in one place for a very long time. In the 19th century the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli saw a bright spot there and called it Nix Olympica, “Olympic Snow”. When the Mariner 9 probe reached Mars in 1971, the summits of this region were among the first features to appear above a planet-wide dust storm, and Olympus Mons was confirmed as a volcano.

Türkçe oku
Mars'taki Olympus Mons, Güneş Sistemi'nde bilinen en büyük volkandır: Yüksekliği 21 km'yi aşar, genişliği 600 km kadardır ve kabaca İtalya büyüklüğünde bir alanı kaplar. Akışkan lavların sayısız kez üst üste yayılmasıyla oluşmuş, geniş ve yumuşak yamaçlı bir kalkan volkandır.

Yamaçları çok yumuşaktır; ortalama eğim yalnızca yüzde 5 kadardır. Zirvesinde iç içe geçmiş altı kaldera, yani çökmüş krater vardır; hepsi birlikte 60 × 80 km genişliğinde, 3,2 km'ye varan derinlikte bir çukur oluşturur. Eteklerini ise yer yer 8 km yüksekliğe ulaşan bir uçurum çevreler. Mars'ın koşulları volkanların bu kadar büyümesine elverişlidir: Kütleçekimi zayıftır, kabuğu da levhalar hâlinde hareket etmez. Böylece zemin aynı sıcak noktanın üzerinde kalır ve lav çok uzun süre aynı yerde birikir. 19. yüzyılda İtalyan astronom Giovanni Schiaparelli burada parlak bir leke gördü ve ona “Olimpos Karı” anlamına gelen Nix Olympica adını verdi. Mariner 9 uzay aracı 1971'de Mars'a vardığında gezegeni bir toz fırtınası sarmıştı; toz dinerken ilk beliren yerler bu bölgedeki volkanların doruklarıydı. Olympus Mons'un bir volkan olduğu da böylece kesinleşti.

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Background reading: Olympus Mons
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