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Tuesday 17 September 2013

Olympus Mons

At a height of 25 km Olympus Mons (on Mars) is the highest volcano in the solar system. It's nearly three times as tall as Mount Everest. 

It is thought that the volcanoes on Mars are a lot higher than on Earth because Mars doesn't have any tectonic plates unlike Earth. This means that magma rises in the same place each time. So, over time the volcano gets bigger and bigger due to the build up of magma. Therefore the height of the volcanoes on Mars are so much bigger than on Earth. 

However on Olympus Mons, the height of this particular volcano is thought to have stopped growing because of the cooling of Mars' core. 

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