Sunday, November 22, 2009

Volcanoes on Mars


Earth isn't the only planet in to solar system that has volcanoes, Mars has them too. Mars has the biggest volcano in the solar system, it is called Olympus Mons and is 340 miles in diameter and 4 miles high. The largest volcano in Earth is Mauna Loa which is 75 miles in diameter and 6 miles high. Another interesting thing is that Mars is about half the size of Earth so these volcanoes are huge. Most of the volcanoes on Mars are shield volcanoes. They have effusive eruptions and are like Hawaiian volcanoes, but they are up to 100x larger than ones on earth. There is another volcano on Mars that is not a shield volcano and is probably a strato volcano. It is called Alba Paterta. It is 930 miles in diameter and 4.3 miles high. It is thought to be similar to Mt. St. Helens on earth. Even though Mars has volcanoes they are all extinct because the core is solid like we learned in our magnetic field unit.

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