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However, the largest volcano on the planet, Olympus Mons, is thought to have formed when the plates were not moving. Olympus Mons may have formed just after the plate motion stopped. The mare-like plains on Mars are roughly 3 to 3.5 billion years old. [72] The giant shield volcanoes are younger, formed between 1 and 2 billion years ago.
Studies of impact crater densities on the Martian surface [10] [11] have delineated four broad periods in the planet's geologic history. [12] The periods were named after places on Mars that had large-scale surface features, such as large craters or widespread lava flows, that date back to these time periods.
Olympus Mons (/ ə ˌ l ɪ m p ə s ˈ m ɒ n z, oʊ-/; [4] Latin for 'Mount Olympus') is a large shield volcano on Mars.It is over 21.9 km (13.6 mi; 72,000 ft) high as measured by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), [5] about 2.5 times the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level.
Arsia Mons once spewed molten rock across the surface of Mars, but some smaller volcanic features may have come from another source. In a select few places on Earth, mud erupts rather than molten ...
The most conspicuous volcanoes on Mars are located in Tharsis and Elysium. Geologists think one of the reasons volcanoes on Mars were able to grow so large is that Mars has fewer tectonic boundaries in comparison to Earth. [64] Lava from a stationary hot spot was able to accumulate at one location on the surface for many hundreds of millions of ...
If it feels like your week has been dragging on forever, consider this — a volcano on Mars once erupted for 2 billion years straight, which is nearly half of the planet's 4.5 billion-year lifetime.
Volcanoes, wind, or water can produce layers. [8] A detailed discussion of layering with many Martian examples can be found in Sedimentary Geology of Mars. [9] Layers can be hardened by the action of groundwater. Martian ground water probably moved hundreds of kilometers, and in the process it dissolved many minerals from the rock it passed ...
[15] [16] [17] It and the somewhat smaller Isidis Planitia together are roughly antipodal to the Tharsis Bulge, with its enormous shield volcanoes, while Argyre Planitia is roughly antipodal to Elysium, the other major uplifted region of shield volcanoes on Mars. Whether the shield volcanoes were caused by antipodal impacts like that which ...