Home » Health » Top 3 Phenomenal Natural Wonders of Mars: Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris, and Tharsis Volcano

Top 3 Phenomenal Natural Wonders of Mars: Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris, and Tharsis Volcano

SPACE — Mars is a planet full of various contours. Mars has giant volcanoes, deep canyons, and craters that may or may not contain flowing water.

If scientists succeed in starting a colony on Mars, perhaps these regions will become amazing locations for future tourists.

Reporting from Space, the following are several locations that might be explored in the future:

Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is the most extreme volcano in the solar system. Located in the Tharsis volcanic region, Olympus Mons is about the same size as the state of Arizona.

According to the American Space Agency (NASA), the height of Olympus Mons reaches 25 kilometers or almost three times higher than Mount Everest on Earth.
Olympus Mons is a giant shield volcano, which was formed after lava slowly crept up its slopes. This mountain may be easy for future explorers to climb, because its slope is only 5 percent on average.

Marineris Valley

Valles Marineris on the surface of Mars. Images: Viking Project, USGS, NASA

Mars is not only home to the largest volcanoes in the solar system, but also contains the largest canyons. According to NASA, the Marineris Valley or Valles Marineris is around 3000 km long. In length, it is about four times longer than the Grand Canyon, which is about 800 km long.

Researchers are not sure how Valles Marineris formed. However, there are several theories about its formation. Many scientists suggest that when the Tharsis region was formed, it contributed to the growth of Valles Marineris.

Lava moving through a volcanic region pushes the crust upward, which breaks the crust into cracks in other regions. Over time, these cracks developed into the Valles Marineris.

Tharsis Volcano

Tharsis Volcano on Mars.

Tharsis has 12 giant volcanoes in a zone roughly 4000 km wide. Like Olympus Mons, these volcanoes tend to be much larger than those on Earth, perhaps because Mars has weaker gravitational forces that allow volcanoes to grow taller. This volcano probably erupted for two billion years, or half of Mars’ history.

2024-02-15 06:59:00
#Cool #Places #Future #Tourists #Visit #Mars #Space #Space

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