Observations of the planet from Mariner 9 confirmed that Nix Olympica was a volcano. Ultimately, astronomers adopted the name "Olympus Mons" for the albedo feature known as Nix Olympica.
Early observations and naming
Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons | Early observations and naming
From Nix Olympica; a volcano. Astronomers adopted the name "Olympus Mons" for the albedo feature known as Nix Olympica It was a robotic space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program It was a robotic space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. It was a robotic space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program.
what is the location of mars in the solar system
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Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
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is it known by any other names?
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Yes, "Red Planet" in English
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are there any volcanoes there?
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Yes, Olympus Mons
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who named it?
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Named after observations made by Mariner 9
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what was that?
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Observations of the planet from Mariner 9 confirmed that Nix Olympica was a volcano. Ultimately, astronomers adopted the name "Olympus Mons" for the albedo feature known as Nix Olympica.
Olympus Mons | Early observations and naming
Olympus Mons and a few other volcanoes in the Tharsis region stand high enough to reach above the frequent Martian dust-storms recorded by telescopic observers as early as the 19th century. The astronomer Patrick Moore pointed out that Schiaparelli (1835–1910) "had found that his "Nodus Gordis" and "Olympic Snow" [Nix Olympica] were almost the only features to be seen" during dust storms, and "guessed correctly that they must be high". The Mariner 9 spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mars in 1971 during a global dust-storm. The first objects to become visible as the dust began to settle, the tops of the Tharsis volcanoes, demonstrated that the altitude of these features greatly exceeded that of any mountain found on Earth, as astronomers expected.
Olympus Mons | Early observations and naming
The curvature of the planet and the volcano itself would obscure such a synoptic view. Similarly, an observer near the summit would be unaware of standing on a very high mountain, as the slope of the volcano would extend far beyond the horizon, a mere 3 kilometers away.
Olympus Mons | Description
The volcano's location corresponds to the classical albedo feature Ascraeus Lacus. Ascraeus Mons was discovered by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971. The volcano was originally called North Spot because it was the northernmost of only four spots visible on the surface due to a global dust storm that was then enshrouding the planet. As the dust cleared, the spots were revealed to be extremely tall volcanoes whose summits had projected above the dust-laden, lower atmosphere.
Ascraeus Mons | Discovery
It was discovered only when stereoscopic radar data allowed construction of an elevation map. It was imaged by Cassini radar 22 February and 10 April 2007. Erebor Mons is named after Erebor, the "Lonely Mountain" that appears in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, most prominently in "The Hobbit". The name follows a convention that Titanean mountains are named after mountains in Tolkien's work. The name was formally announced on November 13, 2012.
Erebor Mons | Introduction
Ascraeus Lacus had been named after Ascra, the rustic birthplace of Hesiod; in Greek, the word "ascraeus" is a poetic metonym for "rural." The volcano's name officially became Ascraeus Mons in 1973.
Ascraeus Mons | Name
It was named in 1973 after a mountain spring near Rome in Italy.
Apollinaris Mons | Introduction
Olympus Mons is partially surrounded by a region of distinctive grooved or corrugated terrain known as the Olympus Mons aureole. The aureole consists of several large lobes. Northwest of the volcano, the aureole extends a distance of up to and is known as Lycus Sulci (). East of Olympus Mons, the aureole is partially covered by lava flows, but where it is exposed it goes by different names (Gigas Sulci, for example). The origin of the aureole remains debated, but it was likely formed by huge landslides or gravity-driven thrust sheets that sloughed off the edges of the Olympus Mons shield.
Olympus Mons | Regional setting and surrounding features
This range is named after Haemus Mons, an old Thracian name of the Balkan mountains. It appeared on the map of Moon due to Johannes Hevelius. But he assigned this name (in the form "Mons Æmus") to another feature – remains of the rim of crater Alexander, located on the other side of Mare Serenitatis. Later the name moved to the subject of this article. The same name, but with reversed order of words – "Haemus Montes" – belongs to one of mountain systems on Io.
Montes Haemus | Introduction
Many of the flows have levees along their margins (pictured). The cooler, outer margins of the flow solidify, leaving a central trough of molten, flowing lava. Partially collapsed lava tubes are visible as chains of pit craters, and broad lava fans formed by lava emerging from intact, subsurface tubes are also common. In places along the volcano's base, solidified lava flows can be seen spilling out into the surrounding plains, forming broad aprons, and burying the basal escarpment. Crater counts from high-resolution images taken by the Mars Express orbiter in 2004 indicate that lava flows on the northwestern flank of Olympus Mons range in age from 115 million years old (Mya) to only 2 Mya.
Olympus Mons | Geology
Lycus Sulci (24.6° N, 219° E) is the name applied to the northwestern portion of a larger terrain feature that partially encircles Olympus Mons and extends up to 750 km from the giant shield volcano’s base. This feature, called the Olympus Mons aureole, consists of several large lobes and has a distinctive corrugated or grooved surface texture. East of Olympus Mons, the aureole is partially covered by lava flows, but where it is exposed it goes by different names (Gigas Sulci, for example). The origin of the aureole remains debated, but it was likely formed by huge landslides or gravity-driven thrust sheets that sloughed off the edges of the Olympus Mons shield.
Diacria quadrangle | Lycus Sulci (Olympus Mons Aureole)
It had been known to astronomers since the late 19th century as the albedo feature Nix Olympica (Latin for "Olympic Snow"). Its mountainous nature was suspected well before space probes confirmed its identity as a mountain. The volcano is located in Mars' western hemisphere at approximately , just off the northwestern edge of the Tharsis bulge. The western portion of the volcano lies in the Amazonis quadrangle (MC-8) and the central and eastern portions in the adjoining Tharsis quadrangle (MC-9). Two impact craters on Olympus Mons have been assigned provisional names by the International Astronomical Union. They are the -diameter Karzok crater () and the -diameter Pangboche crater ().
Olympus Mons | Introduction
Menster Ledge, a geological feature in Antarctica, is named after Menster in his capacity as chaplain, commander, USN of the flagship Mount Olympus.
William Menster | Memoria
The mountain was discovered on images taken by the "Dawn" spacecraft in orbit around Ceres in 2015. It is estimated to have an average height of about and a maximum height of about on its steepest side; it is about wide at the base.
Ahuna Mons | Discovery
The volcano was discovered by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1972 and was initially known as the Alba volcanic feature or the Arcadia Ring (in reference to the partial ring of fractures around the volcano). The IAU named the volcano Alba Patera in 1973. The volcano is often simply called Alba when the context is understood.
Alba Mons | Name origin
The term "mons" was firstly used for extraterrestrial mountains by Michael van Langren in 1645. He assigned names to some mountains on the Moon, but none of these names remain in use. Two years later Johannes Hevelius proposed the first names of extraterrestrial mountains still used. The lunar Alps and Apennines still bear names given by Hevelius, and five of his other mountain names nowadays refer to other features (in some cases his "mountains" later turned out to be bright rays from craters). The International Astronomical Union approved the first names of extraterrestrial mountains (together with many other traditional lunar names) in 1935, although without a generic Latin term, which was restored in 1961.
Mons (planetary nomenclature) | Names of montes
As a shield volcano, Olympus Mons resembles the shape of the large volcanoes making up the Hawaiian Islands. The edifice is about wide. Because the mountain is so large, with complex structure at its edges, allocating a height to it is difficult. Olympus Mons stands above the Mars global datum, and its local relief, from the foot of the cliffs which form its northwest margin to its peak, is over (a little over twice the height of Mauna Kea as measured from its base on the ocean floor). The total elevation change from the plains of Amazonis Planitia, over to the northwest, to the summit approaches .
Olympus Mons | Description
Mount Olympus is formed of sedimentary rock laid down 200 million years ago in a shallow sea. Various geological events that followed caused the emergence of the whole region and the sea. Around one million years ago glaciers covered Olympus and created its plateaus and depressions. With the temperature rise that followed, the ice melted and the streams that were created swept away large quantities of crushed rock in the lowest places, forming the alluvial fans, that spread out all over the region from the foothills of the mountain to the sea. The Geological Museum of Mount Olympus, located in Leptokarya, provides detailed information about the geological structure of the mountain.
Mount Olympus | Geology
Olympus Mons is the result of many thousands of highly fluid, basaltic lava flows that poured from volcanic vents over a long period of time (the Hawaiian Islands exemplify similar shield volcanoes on a smaller scale – see Mauna Kea). Like the basalt volcanoes on Earth, Martian basaltic volcanoes are capable of erupting enormous quantities of ash. Due to the reduced gravity of Mars compared to Earth, there are lesser buoyant forces on the magma rising out of the crust. In addition, the magma chambers are thought to be much larger and deeper than the ones found on Earth. The flanks of Olympus Mons are made up of innumerable lava flows and channels.
Olympus Mons | Geology
The summit of the mountain has six nested calderas (collapsed craters) forming an irregular depression × across and up to deep. The volcano's outer edge consists of an escarpment, or cliff, up to tall (although obscured by lava flows in places), a feature unique among the shield volcanoes of Mars, which may have been created by enormous flank landslides. Olympus Mons covers an area of about , which is approximately the size of Italy or the Philippines, and it is supported by a thick lithosphere. The extraordinary size of Olympus Mons is likely because Mars lacks mobile tectonic plates. Unlike on Earth, the crust of Mars remains fixed over a stationary hotspot, and a volcano can continue to discharge lava until it reaches an enormous height.
Olympus Mons | Description
Mons (plural: montes , from the Latin word for "mountain") is a mountain on a celestial body. The term is used in planetary nomenclature: it is a part of the international names of such features. It is capitalized and usually stands after the proper given name, but stands before it in the case of lunar mountains (for example, there is a Martian mountain Arsia Mons and a lunar mountain Mons Argaeus). The term "tholus" ("dome") is used for names of smaller (especially domical) uplands, and the term "colles" ("hills") in names of groups of still smaller knobs. Peculiar round mountains found on Venus get names with the term "farrum".
Mons (planetary nomenclature) | Introduction
Information boards and models explain the origin and geological structure of the Olympus. Displayed are fossils, any type of stones occurring in the mountains and photographs of geologically significant objects. Special exhibits are fossils of marine animals that were found in the Olympus at an altitude of about 1000 meters.
Museums and exhibitions at Mount Olympus | <a href="Geological%20Museum%20of%20Mount%20Olympus">Geological Museum of Mount Olympus</a>
Mount Hercules () is a large, flat-topped, elevated feature between Mount Aeolus and Mount Jason in the Olympus Range of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It was named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (1958–59) for Hercules, a figure in Greek mythology. Marsh Cirque is a cirque on the southern slopes of Mount Hercules. The cirque is wide and in part occupied by a glacier. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 2004 after geologist Bruce D. Marsh, of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Marsh investigated basement sill at McMurdo Dry Valleys sites in seven field seasons, 1995–2005, for the United States Antarctic Program.
Mount Hercules | Introduction
Mons Maenalus (Latin for "Mount Maenalus") was a constellation created by Johannes Hevelius in 1687. It was located between the constellations of Boötes and Virgo, and depicts a mountain in Greece that the herdsman is stepping upon. It was increasingly considered obsolete by the latter half of the 19th century. Its brightest star is 31 Boötis, a G-type giant of apparent magnitude 4.86.
Mons Maenalus | Introduction
Geologic evidence indicates that significant volcanic activity ended much earlier at Alba Mons than at Olympus Mons and the Tharsis Montes volcanoes. Volcanic deposits from Alba Mons range in age from Hesperian to early Amazonian (approximately 3.6 to 3.2 billion years old).
Alba Mons | Introduction
It is due to the great microclimate variety, caused by the region's landscape.
Mount Olympus | Flora
Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption), by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross on his Antarctic expedition, who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, HMS "Erebus" and HMS "Terror" (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Present with Ross on HMS "Erebus" was the young Joseph Hooker, future president of the Royal Society and close friend of Charles Darwin. Erebus is a dark region in Hades in Greek mythology, personified as the Ancient Greek primordial deity of darkness, the son of Chaos.
Mount Erebus | Discovery and naming
Alba Mons, northeast of Olympus Mons, has roughly 19 times the surface area, but is only about one third the height. Pele, the largest known volcano on Io, is also much larger, at roughly 4 times the surface area, but is considerably flatter. Additionally, Tharsis Rise, a large volcanic structure on Mars of which Olympus Mons is a part, has been interpreted as an enormous spreading volcano. If this is confirmed, Tharsis would be by far the largest volcano in the Solar System. Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during Mars's Hesperian Period.
Olympus Mons | Introduction
I speculate that the mountains might be a chain of volcanoes that oozed up along cracks in the crust after the impact."
Doom Mons | Characteristics and height
Mons Hansteen is a mountain on the Moon, also known as Hansteen Alpha (α), named after Christopher Hansteen. It is roughly triangular in shape and occupies an area about 30 km across on the western margin of Oceanus Procellarum, southeast of the crater Hansteen and north of the dark-floored crater Billy. It is thought to be an extrusion of volcanic material that is younger than the crater Hansteen.
Mons Hansteen | Introduction
Elysium Mons was discovered in 1972 in images returned by the Mariner 9 orbiter.
Elysium Mons | Discovery
Crater size-frequency distributions on the caldera floors indicate the calderas range in age from 350 Mya to about 150 Mya. All probably formed within 100 million years of each other. Olympus Mons is asymmetrical structurally as well as topographically. The longer, more shallow northwestern flank displays extensional features, such as large slumps and normal faults. In contrast, the volcano's steeper southeastern side has features indicating compression, including step-like terraces in the volcano's mid-flank region (interpreted as thrust faults) and a number of wrinkle ridges located at the basal escarpment. Why opposite sides of the mountain should show different styles of deformation may lie in how large shield volcanoes grow laterally and in how variations within the volcanic substrate have affected the mountain's final shape.
Olympus Mons | Geology
Democritus is named after the Greek philosopher of the same name. Like many of the craters on the Moon's near side, it was given its name by Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system has become standardized. Earlier lunar cartographers had given the feature different names: Michael van Langren's 1645 map calls it "Alfonsi IX Reg. Cast." after Alfonso IX of León and Castile, and Johannes Hevelius called it "Mons Bontas".
Democritus (crater) | Names
Olympus Mons (; Latin for Mount Olympus) is a very large shield volcano on the planet Mars. The volcano has a height of over 21 km (13.6 mi or 72,000 ft) as measured by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Olympus Mons is about two and a half times Mount Everest's height above sea level. It is one of the largest volcanoes, the tallest planetary mountain, and the second tallest mountain currently discovered in the Solar System, comparable to Rheasilvia on Vesta. It is often cited as the largest volcano in the Solar System. However, by some metrics, other volcanoes are considerably larger.
Olympus Mons | Introduction
It was named after Soviet geochemist Aleksandr P. Vinogradov. This mountain was formerly named Euler Beta (β), or Mons Euler. In the rugged ground just to the southeast of this mountain is a set of craters that have been assigned names by the IAU. These are listed in the table below.
Mons Vinogradov | Introduction
The form and layout of the rocks favor the emergence of numerous springs, mainly lower than 2,000 m, of small seasonal lakes and streams and of a small river, Enipeas, with its springs in the site Prionia and its estuary in the Aegean Sea.
Mount Olympus | Morphology
Olympus Mons is located between the northwestern edge of the Tharsis region and the eastern edge of Amazonis Planitia. It stands about from the other three large Martian shield volcanoes, collectively called the Tharsis Montes (Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons). The Tharsis Montes are slightly smaller than Olympus Mons. A wide, annular depression or moat about deep surrounds the base of Olympus Mons and is thought to be due to the volcano's immense weight pressing down on the Martian crust. The depth of this depression is greater on the northwest side of the mountain than on the southeast side.
Olympus Mons | Regional setting and surrounding features
The name was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1991. Anseris Mons is not a volcano. Geologically, the massif is thought to be the eroded remnant of an ancient crustal block uplifted from depths of several kilometers in the formation of the Hellas impact basin during the period of heavy bombardment. Anseris Mons is the type area for a large set of rugged mountain blocks (>25 km across) that occur in a relatively continuous band 200 to 500 km wide around the western, northeastern, eastern, and southeastern rim of the Hellas basin. Many of the blocks, particularly along the western rim, are concentric with the basin and bounded by faults.
Anseris Mons | Introduction
Some scientists believe that glaciers may have existed on many of the volcanoes in Tharsis including Olympus Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and Pavonis Mons. Ceraunius Tholus may have even had its glaciers melt to form some temporary lakes in the past. The smoothness and flatness of the Ceraunius Tholus caldera floor suggests that in the past meltwater accumulated in a caldera lake.
Ceraunius Tholus | Glaciers
A subsequent search puts forward that it may have been two different volcanoes that were some distance away from each other.
John of Ephesus | Witness to the Beginning of the 6th Century Miniature Ice Age
The geological development of Greece will be explained with the help of folders. Using a model of the Olympus, the distribution of the various types of rock in the mountain range is shown. All known types of rocks occurring in the Olympus region are exhibited in showcases. As a result of the displacement of the continental plates, Olympus is still pushed up by one to four millimeters per year. This is the reason why there are petrified marine animals at a height of around 1000 to 1500 meters. A hitherto unique find was an ammonite found at an altitude of about 1100 meters.
Olympus Geological History Museum | The exhibits
It has been proposed that Ahuna Mons formed as a cryovolcanic dome. It is the closest cryovolcano to the Sun yet discovered. It is roughly antipodal to the largest impact basin on Ceres, diameter Kerwan. Seismic energy from the Kerwan-forming impact may have been focused on the opposite side of Ceres, fracturing the outer layers of the area and facilitating the movement of high viscosity cryovolcanic magma (consisting of muddy water ice softened by its content of salts) that was then extruded onto the surface. Crater counts suggest that formation of the mountain continued into the last several hundred million years, making this a relatively young geological feature.
Ahuna Mons | Origin
The local Native American name for the peak is "Sunh-a-do", and upon sighting in 1774 by the Spanish explorer Juan Pérez, the mountain was named "Cerro Nevado de Santa Rosalía" ("Snowy Peak of Saint Rosalia"). This is said to be the first time a European named a geographic feature in what is now Washington state. In 1788, on July 4, the British explorer John Meares gave the mountain its present name. In 1890 an expedition, led by US Army officer Joseph P. O'Neil, reached the summit, of what is today presumed to have been the southern peak. On March 2, 1909, Mount Olympus National Monument was proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Mount Olympus (Washington) | History
Ascraeus Mons was built by many thousands of fluid basaltic lava flows. Except for its great size, it resembles terrestrial shield volcanoes like those that form the Hawaiian Islands. The flanks of Ascraeus Mons are covered with narrow, lobate lava flows and lava channels. Many of the lava flows have levees along their margins. Levees are parallel ridges formed at the edges of lava flows. The cooler, outer margins of the flow solidify, leaving a central trough of molten, flowing lava. Partially collapsed lava tubes are visible as chains of pit craters. By examining the morphologies of lava flow structures on Ascraeus Mons, geologists are able to calculate the rheological properties of the lava and estimate the rate at which it poured out during eruption (effusion rate).
Ascraeus Mons | Geology
The caldera of Arsia Mons was formed when the mountain collapsed in on itself after its reservoir of magma was exhausted. There are many other geologic collapse features on the mountain's flanks. The caldera floor formed around 150 Mya ago.
Arsia Mons | Structure
Tyrrhenus Mons, formerly Tyrrhena Mons or Tyrrhena Patera, is a large volcano in the Mare Tyrrhenum quadrangle of Mars, located at 21.36° south latitude and 253.47° west longitude. The name "Tyrrhena Patera" now refers only to the central depression, a volcanic crater or caldera. It was named after a classical albedo feature name. Pit chains are found at the summit of Tyrrhenus Mons. They are formed by collapse of material into underground voids. Since they form chains and concentric fractures that are aligned, they are probably caused by extension of the surface. Volcanic processes made the crust pull apart. Voids were formed, then material fell into them, leaving holes.
Tyrrhenus Mons | Introduction
One famous Mars realization was that what was then called "Nix Olympica" was a volcano, and then renamed Olympus Mons thanks to Mariner 9 orbiter observations in the early 1970s. Endeavour was identified as having clay minerals, as detected from orbit by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which according to theories at that time indicated rock from an older, wetter, time period on Mars. This type of rock is different from what prevails in other areas of surrounding plains. What is expected to be a fluid-carved gully was identified at Endeavour, probably water. This gully is targeted for exploration by the MER-B rover mission as of October 2016.
Endeavour (crater) | Geology
But in 2007, these names were tied to the craters themselves, and the corresponding volcanic mountains obtained names with the terms "Mons" or "Tholus". An example of such mountains is Alba Mons, which obtained its name 34 years after its crater Alba Patera. The geological term "highland patera" (a kind of low Martian volcanoes with radially channeled flanks), unlike the nomenclatural term "patera", refers to the whole volcano.
Patera (planetary nomenclature) | Peculiarities of usage of the term
Olympus Rupes is a group of cliffs along the northern face of Olympus Mons, the largest mountain on Mars and the largest volcano in the Solar System. It also forms the northern border of the mountain.
Olympus Rupes | Introduction
In 1884/1885, Wilhelm Barnim Dames, based on specimen UM 84, a tooth from the Early Cretaceous, named "Megalosaurus dunkeri", the specific name honouring Wilhelm Dunker. In 1923, this was made a separate genus "Altispinax". In 1885, Joseph Henri Ferdinand Douvillé renamed "Dakosaurus gracilis" Quenstedt 1885 into "Megalosaurus gracilis". Today the renaming is generally rejected. In 1889, Richard Lydekker named "Megalosaurus oweni", the specific name honouring Owen, based on a series of metatarsals from the Early Cretaceous, specimen BMNH R2556. In 1991, this was made a separate genus "Valdoraptor". In 1892, Edward Drinker Cope renamed "Ceratosaurus nasicornis" Marsh 1884 into "Megalosaurus nasicornis".
Megalosaurus | Species named in the 19th century
It was discovered on 14 October 2007, by American astronomers Scott Sheppard and Chad Trujillo with the Subaru telescope at Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, United States. It was later named after the twins Mors and Somnus from Roman mythology.
341520 Mors–Somnus | Introduction
In 1835 George Frankland climbed the mountain and named it Mount Olympus.
Mount Olympus (Tasmania) | History
If comparable to similar features on Earth, Atla Regio probably formed when large volumes of molten rock upwelled from areas within the interior of Venus known as 'hot spots.'
Sapas Mons | Description
The southern half of the Alba Mons volcano is built over the northern extension of this ridge.
Ceraunius Fossae | Location and size
The craters are notable for being two of several suspected source areas for shergottites, the most abundant class of Martian meteorites.
Olympus Mons | Introduction
These are listed in the table below. The craters are at the tops of two lunar domes, which are most likely volcanoes and were not formed by impacts.
Mons Esam | Introduction
Mons Esam is a small, isolated mountain in the northern part of the Mare Tranquillitatis. It is located to the southeast of the crater Vitruvius and to the west-northwest of Lyell. To the northeast of this ridge is the bay called Sinus Amoris. The selenographic coordinate of this feature is 14.6° N, 35.7° E, and it has a maximum diameter at the base of 8 km. The name of this feature is an Arabic masculine name (), and it was not chosen to represent a specific individual. This peak is a lunar cone that was formed through tectonic processes. A pair of tiny craters just to the south of Mons Esam have been assigned names by the IAU.
Mons Esam | Introduction
The mountains were originally called "Sun-a-do" by the Duwamish Indians, while the first European to see them, the Spanish navigator Juan Pérez, named Mount Olympus "Santa Rosalia", in 1774. But the English captain John Meares, seeing them in 1788, thought he would honor the Greek explorer Juan de Fuca who claimed to have found the fabled Northwest passage nearby by naming the mountain after the mythical home of Greek Gods which is "Mount Olympus" in Greece. Various names for the mountains were used based on the name Mount Olympus, including the Olympic Range, the Olympian Mountains, and the Olympus Range.
Olympic Mountains | Prehistory
Other witnesses who were part of the mountain formerly under the sea level are limestones that were drilled by mussels (Litophagae) or limestones include petrified sea-worms. The Olymp is a so-called tectonic window. This means that erosion and warping have released old rock layers that would normally be hidden. This fact ensures that geologists from all over the world travel to Olympus for research purposes.
Olympus Geological History Museum | The exhibits
Doom Mons is named after Mount Doom, a volcano that appears in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, most prominently in "The Lord of the Rings". The name follows a convention by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature that Titanean mountains are named after mountains in Tolkien's works. Other examples of Titanean mountains or mountain ranges named after Tolkien's works include Erebor Mons, the Irensaga Montes, Mindolluin Montes, Misty Montes, Mithrim Montes, and Taniquetil Montes. The name of Mount Doom was formally announced for the Titanean mountain on November 13, 2012.
Doom Mons | Naming
Discovered in the 1970s, the mountain remained unnamed for several decades. When Gale crater became a candidate landing site, the mountain was given various labels e.g. in 2010 a NASA photo caption called it "Gale crater mound". In March 2012, NASA unofficially named it "Mount Sharp", after American geologist Robert P. Sharp. Since 1919 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has been the official body responsible for planetary nomenclature. Under its long-established rules for naming features on Mars, mountains are named after the Classical albedo feature in which they are located, not after people. In May 2012 the IAU officially named the mountain Aeolis Mons after the Aeolis albedo feature.
Mount Sharp | Name
The term "mons", like other terms of planetary nomenclature, describes only the external view of the feature, but not its origin or geological structure. It is used for mountains of any origin, and objects in this class are very diverse. Usually they are results of tectonic, impact or volcanic processes. Examples of such mountains are the Maxwell Montes on Venus, the Montes Apenninus on the Moon and Olympus Mons on Mars, respectively. More unusual origins are also possible. For example, the Geryon Montes of Mars are an erosional remnant of a former plateau within Ius Chasma, part of the Valles Marineris canyon system.
Mons (planetary nomenclature) | Nature of montes
Together they are often informally called the Gruithuisen domes.
Mons Gruithuisen Gamma | Introduction
Tharsis is a land of great volcanoes. Olympus Mons is the tallest known volcano. "Mons" is a term used for a large raised feature. "Tholus" is about the same, but smaller.
Uranius Tholus | Volcanoes
In 2002 the Argentine paleontologist Fernando Novas reported the discovery of a partial skeleton of a euornithopod in Antarctica. In 2016 these remains were the basis for naming the type species "Morrosaurus antarcticus", named and described by Sebastian Rozadilla, Federico Lisandro Agnolin, Fernando Emilio Novas, Alexis Rolando Aranciaga Mauro, Matthew J. Motta, Juan Manuel Lirio Marcelo, and Pablo Isasi. The genus name refers to the site of El Morro on James Ross Island, where the remains of the species were found. The specific name refers to Antarctica. The holotype specimen MACN Pv 197, was found in a layer of the Snow Hill Island Formation (Cape Lambe, previously assigned to the Lopez de Bertodano Formation), dating to the Maastrichtian age.
Morrosaurus | Discovery
As of May 2015, 262 extraterrestrial mountains and mountain systems have official names: 117 on Venus, 50 on Mars, 48 on the Moon, 23 on Io, 13 on Titan, 9 on Iapetus, 1 on Mercury and 1 on Tethys. They are named differently on different celestial bodies:
Mons (planetary nomenclature) | Names of montes
Mount Early () is a solitary volcanic cone, high, standing north of D'Angelo Bluff, on the west side and near the head of Scott Glacier. It was discovered in December 1934 from nearby Mount Weaver by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition geological party led by Quin Blackburn. It was visited by the Ohio State University geological party led by George Doumani on November 21, 1962, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Captain Neal E. Early, US Army, a member of the aviation unit that supported the United States Geological Survey Topo East survey of this area, 1962–63.
Mount Early | Introduction
Mons Herodotus is a small lunar mountain north of the crater Herodotus. It lies on the rugged Aristarchus Plateau and rises approximately 1 km above the surrounding terrain.
Mons Herodotus | Introduction
The genus name honors Nullo and links his name to a Greek ""titan"", referring to the large race of powerful giants, the Titans of Greek mythology. The species designation refers to the Perito Moreno Glacier that is visible from the site. The holotype,MACN-PV 18644; MPM 21542, is found in a layer of the lower Chorillo Formation that dates from the Campanian-Maastrichtian. It consists of a partial skeleton without a skull. The following are preserved: a third cervical vertebra (the MACN-PV 18644 specimen found by Bonaparte in 1981), tail vertebrae, a neck rib, ribs, a left shoulder blade, the ends of a right thigh bone, a right shin, a right calf bone, and a right ankle bone.
Nullotitan | Discovery and naming
The Asciburgius mons or Askibourgion oros is a mountain of greater Germany mentioned by the ancient geographer, Ptolemy, of unknown location today. Ptolemy does give us enough information to speculate where the mountain probably is, saying it was between the Elbe river and the Oder river or in other words, the Giant Mountains range.
Asciburgius | Introduction
In earlier times, the Balkan Mountains were known as the Haemus Mons ( ). It is believed that the name is derived from a Thracian word "*saimon", 'mountain ridge', which is unattested but conjectured as the original Thracian form of Greek "Emos". Another classic etymology derives the name 'Haemos' from the myth about the fight of Zeus and the dragon Typhon: In antiquity, the mountain range and the area around it was populated by free Thracian peoples such as the Bessi, Dii, and Satrae. Herodotus records that an oracle-shrine of Dionysus (originally a Thracian god whose cult became widespread among the ancient Greeks) was located atop one of its mountains.
Haemus Mons | Introduction
While finds from the whole of Greece are exhibited in the classrooms, a separate exhibition room is devoted exclusively to Mount Olympus. The history of the formation of the mountains is shown. Various types of fossilized plants and fossils are exhibited.
Olympus Geological History Museum | Structure of the museum
"Zeus olympius" was first described scientifically 1987 by David Minter and Stephanos Diamandis, based on collections made by the latter from Greece's Mount Olympus. The generic and specific epithets refer to the king of the gods in Ancient Greek mythology, who is said to have lived on Mount Olympus. Based on physical characteristics, "Zeus" produces fruit bodies that are most similar to "Colpoma", "Therrya", and "Coccomyces", all genera in the order Rhytismatales. The authors also noted some similarities with "Cerion" and "Ocotomyces". None of these genera have species with ellipsoid ascospores; ascospore shape is known to be an important criterion in the Rhytismatales for distinguishing between genera, so the authors felt justified in creating a new genus for their discovery.
Zeus (fungus) | Taxonomy and classification
Tharsis contains a group of large volcanoes. Olympus Mons is the tallest.
Tharsis quadrangle | Introduction
"Aeolis Palus" and Aeolis Mons in Gale Crater:
Aeolis Palus | External links
The origin of the name Όλυμπος "Olumpos" is unknown and usually considered of "pre-Greek" origin. In Homeric Greek ("Odyssey" 6.42), the variant Οὔλυμπος "Oulumpos" occurs, conceived of as the seat of the gods (and not identified with any specific peak). Homer ("Iliad" 5.754, "Odyssey" 20.103) also appears to be using οὔλυμπος as a common noun, as a synonym of οὐρανός "ouranos" "sky". Mount Olympus was historically also known as "Mount Belus", after "Iliad" 1.591, where the seat of the gods is referred to as βηλ[ός] θεσπεσίο[ς] "heavenly threshold". In Ancient Greek religion and mythology, "Olympus" was the name of the home of the Twelve Olympian gods.
Mount Olympus | Name and mythological associations
In 1979 this name (with a term "Mons" – "mountain") was adopted by International Astronomical Union. Mons Agnes is one of several dozens of similar hills inside Ina (but one of the largest). Their origin, as for Ina on the whole, remains enigmatic.
Mons Agnes | Introduction
The three Tharsis Montes, together with some smaller volcanoes to the north, form a rather straight line. It has been proposed that these are the result of plate tectonics, which on Earth makes chains of "hot spot" volcanoes.
Arsia Mons | Possible plate tectonics
In 1980, Philippe Masson of the University of Paris-Sud offered an integrated interpretation of the structural geochronology of Valles Marineris, Noctis Labyrinthus, and Claritas Fossae in light of imagery from Mariner 9 and the Viking Orbiter. In 2003, Daniel Mège (Pierre and Marie Curie University), Anthony C. Cook (University of Nottingham and the Smithsonian Institution), Erwan Garel (University of Maine in France), Yves Lagabrielle (University of Western Brittany), and Marie-Hélène Cormier (Columbia University) proposed a model for rifting on Mars initiated by the deflation of magma chambers, forming pit crater chains tracking directionally with simple graben. The researchers offered the first theoretical explanation as to how the chasmata of Noctis Labyrinthus formed.
Noctis Labyrinthus | Observational history
Aristarchus is named after the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos. Like many of the craters on the Moon's near side, it was given its name by Giovanni Riccioli, whose 1651 nomenclature system became standardized in 1935. Earlier lunar cartographers had given the feature different names. Michael van Langren's 1645 map calls it "Balthasaris Hispa. Pri." after Balthazar Charles, then the heir apparent to the kingdoms of Spain. And Johannes Hevelius called it "Mons Porphyrites" after the mountains near Olbia, Egypt. A particular region of very low ultraviolet albedo is called Wood's Spot after its discoverer, Robert W. Wood.
Aristarchus (crater) | Names
Mount Theseus () is a prominent peak, 1,830 m, just south of Clark Glacier in the Olympus Range of Victoria Land. Named by the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (1958–59) after a figure of Greek mythology.
Mount Theseus | Introduction
The Latin name Abnoba Mons (Pre-Germanic "Abnoba"; Ancient Greek "τὰ Ἄβνοβα", "ta Abnoba", "Abnobaia orē") is the name of a mountain range that was already known to ancient authors Pliny and Tacitus. The name has been traditionally, primarily associated in historical research with the Black Forest. Ptolemy used the toponym in his A.D. 150 publication, "Geographia", as a mountain range lying within Germania magna () with its southern extent at 31° 49' and its northern extremity at 31° 52'. The geographer clearly did not restrict this name to present day Black Forest, but to an entire mountain chain.
Abnoba mons | Introduction
Being a shield volcano, Olympus Mons has a very gently sloping profile. The average slope on the volcano's flanks is only 5°. Slopes are steepest near the middle part of the flanks and grow shallower toward the base, giving the flanks a concave upward profile. The shape of Olympus Mons is distinctly asymmetrical—its flanks are shallower and extend farther from the summit in the northwestern direction than they do to the southeast. The volcano's shape and profile have been likened to a "circus tent" held up by a single pole that is shifted off center. Due to the size and shallow slopes of Olympus Mons, an observer standing on the Martian surface would be unable to view the entire profile of the volcano, even from a great distance.
Olympus Mons | Description
Mons Pico, one of the Montes Teneriffe range of lunar mountains in the inner ring of the Mare Imbrium, was named by Johann Hieronymus Schröter after the "Pico von Teneriffe", an 18th-century name for Teide. There is also a brown dwarf star located in the open star cluster of the Pleiades called Teide 1.
Teide | Mountain of the Moon
Ceraunius Tholus is on the Tharsis rise, also called the Tharsis bulge. Tharsis is a land of great volcanoes. Olympus Mons is the tallest known volcano. Ascraeus Mons and Pavonis Mons are at least 320 km across and are over 10 km above the plateau that they sit on. The plateau is five to four seven kilometers above the zero altitude of Mars.
Ceraunius Tholus | Environment around Ceraunius Tholus
Mons Pico is a solitary lunar mountain that lies in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin, to the south of the dark-floored crater Plato and on the southern rim of a ghost crater. This peak forms part of the surviving inner ring of the Imbrium basin, continuing to the northwest and with the Montes Teneriffe and Montes Recti ranges, and probably to the southeast with the Montes Spitzbergen. This mountain feature was most likely named by Schröter for the Pico von Teneriffe (Teide).
Mons Pico | Introduction
Features on Deimos are named after authors who wrote about Martian satellites. There are currently two named features on Deimos - Swift crater and Voltaire crater - after Jonathan Swift and Voltaire who predicted the presence of Martian moons.
Planetary nomenclature | <a href="Deimos%20%28moon%29">Deimos</a>
Ulysses Tholus is a Martian volcano. It is located in the Tharsis quadrangle at 2.89° north latitude and 121.55° west longitude. It is 58 km across and is named after a classical albedo feature. Ulysses Tholus is immediately east and slightly north of another volcano, Biblis Tholus. The name of the mountain itself was changed on September 19, 2007. The former terminology, Ulysses Patera, now applies only (and more accurately) to the central caldera, whereas formerly it had applied to the whole edifice. "Tholus" describes a volcanic edifice somewhat smaller than would be implied by "mons".
Ulysses Tholus | Introduction
The ancients knew the mountain as "Strobilus", Latin for "pine cone", a direct loan from the ancient Greek "strobilos", ('a twisted object') a long-established botanical term that describes the shape of the volcano's summit. In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus was chained to the mountain by Zeus as a punishment for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mankind. The lower of the two summits was first ascended on by Khillar Khachirov, a guide for an Imperial Russian army scientific expedition led by General Georgi Emmanuel, and the higher (by about ) in 1874 by an English expedition led by F.
Mount Elbrus | History
Abeona Mons is a mountain on Venus named after the goddess Abeona.
Abeona Mons | Introduction
Some scientists see evidence that glaciers exist on many of the volcanoes in Tharsis, including Olympus Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and Pavonis Mons. Ceraunius Tholus may have even had its glaciers melt to form some temporary lakes in the past.
Tharsis quadrangle | Glaciers
Haemus Mons is also a 10 km high mountain on the Jupiter moon Io.
Haemus Mons | Other uses
The presence of the lava aprons causes some disagreement in the actual dimensions of the volcano. If the aprons are included as part of the edifice then Ascraeus Mons has dimensions closer to 375 × 870 km.
Ascraeus Mons | General description
Egypt Mons is a mountain on Jupiter's moon Io. It is 10 kilometers in height, making it the 11th tallest mountain on Io, and taller than Mount Everest. Although the U.S. Geological Survey gives a diameter of 193.7 kilometers, the Io Mountain Database gives a length of 133.8 kilometers and a width of 146.0 kilometers. It is a Flatiron Massif mountain, meaning it has a rugged, irregular appearance and complex surface morphology. It is 9792 km in area and located at . It has a steep, north-facing scarp. Egypt Mons is named for Egypt, because that is the place where Io ended her wanderings in the mythology.
Egypt Mons | Introduction
These ages are very recent in geological terms, suggesting that the mountain may still be volcanically active, though in a very quiescent and episodic fashion. The caldera complex at the peak of the volcano is made of at least six overlapping calderas and caldera segments (pictured). Calderas are formed by roof collapse following depletion and withdrawal of the subsurface magma chamber after an eruption. Each caldera thus represents a separate pulse of volcanic activity on the mountain. The largest and oldest caldera segment appears to have formed as a single, large lava lake. Using geometric relationships of caldera dimensions from laboratory models, scientists have estimated that the magma chamber associated with the largest caldera on Olympus Mons lies at a depth of about below the caldera floor.
Olympus Mons | Geology
Mons Argaeus is a mountainous massif on the Moon that extends for a length of 65 km towards the southeast. It is located at coordinates , wedging between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis on their eastern border. The summit is approximately 2560 m above the plain of Mare Serenitatis to the west. Apollo 17 landed to the east of Mons Argaeus in the Taurus–Littrow Valley (next to Mons Vitruvius and to the south of the crater Littrow). This rise was given the Latin name for Mount Argaeus, a peak in Turkey now called Erciyes Dağı. The name for this lunar feature was officially adopted by the IAU in 1935.
Mons Argaeus | Introduction
The term "mons pubis" is derived from Latin for "pubic mound", and "mons Venus" or "mons veneris" is derived from Latin for "mound of Venus".
Mons pubis | Etymology
The shield volcano Olympus Mons ("Mount Olympus") is an extinct volcano in the vast upland region Tharsis, which contains several other large volcanoes. Olympus Mons is roughly three times the height of Mount Everest, which in comparison stands at just over . It is either the tallest or second-tallest mountain in the Solar System, depending on how it is measured, with various sources giving figures ranging from about high.
Mars | Volcanoes
The name Olympus originates from the Olympus Concorde engine. This is significant because it was designed and produced locally.
The Olympus Academy Trust | Origin
The specific name is derived from the Latin "latus", "broad", and "cauda", "tail". Morris interpreted this species as water-bound, due to features like its size, its tall and narrow tail (interpreted as a swimming adaptation), and weak hip articulations, as well as a healed broken thigh bone that he thought would have been too much of a handicap for a terrestrial animal to have survived long enough to heal. Between 1981 and 2012, other authors accepted it as a potential species of "Lambeosaurus", suggested it could instead be a species of "Hypacrosaurus", or questioned its validity. In 2012 it was named as a separate genus by Albert Prieto-Márquez, Luis Chiappe, and Shantanu Joshi.
Magnapaulia | Discovery and naming