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Umm... not true. "The highest mountain on Mars is also the highest mountain and volcano in the entire solar system. It is called Olympus Mons and is 16 miles (
by webnrrd2k 7y ago
Umm... not true.
"The highest mountain on Mars is also the highest mountain and volcano in the entire solar system. It is called Olympus Mons and is 16 miles (24 kilometers) high which makes it about three times higher than Mt. Everest"
My knowlege is old, but iirc I think the reason for Martian mountains being (potentially) higher than earth is the the rock is physically stronger due to lower water content. On earth, the water that eventually makes its way into rocks reduces it's strength, but, on Mars, the relative lack of water makes the rocks physically stronger.
- ekianjo 7y agoAlso erosion on Mars is probably lesser than on Earth.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoAlso Mars has less gravity than Earth. This helps.
- perl4ever 7y ago1. You're telling me what I mean by "really amazingly higher"? Well, you don't get to do that. In my opinion, the scarp/cliff around Olympus Mons doesn't count, and disregarding that, it's less than 40% higher than from Mauna Kea/Loa to the seafloor. Frankly, a mountain would have to be well over double earth's highest base-to-peak to be "really amazing" to me. Ten times would really be "really amazing". 2. There's a Wikipedia page on the subject of tallest mountains in the solar system and it says the current leader is (probably) Rheasilvia on Vesta.