Olympus Mons (Latin for Mount Olympus) is a large shield volcano on the planet Mars. By one measure, it has a height of nearly 22 km (14 mi). This makes it the tallest mountain on any planet in the Solar System (and, after the 2011 discovery of Rheasilvia Mons on 4 Vesta, the second largest mountain on any world known to man). It stands almost three times as tall as Mount Everest's height above sea level. Olympus Mons is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during Mars's Amazonian Period. Olympus Mons 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's western hemisphere at approximately 18°39′N 226°12′E / 18.65°N 226.2°E / 18.65; 226.2, 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 IAU. They are the 15.6 km (9.7 mi)-diameter Karzok crater (18°25′N 131°55′W / 18.417°N 131.917°W / 18.417; -131.917) and the 10.4 km (6.5 mi)-diameter Pangboche crater (17°10′N 133°35′W / 17.167°N 133.583°W / 17.167; -133.583). The craters are notable for being two of several suspected source areas for shergottites, the most abundant class of Martian meteorites.
Read more about Olympus Mons: General Description, Geology, Early Observations and Naming, Regional Setting and Surrounding Features
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“Could truth perhaps be a woman who has reasons for not permitting her reasons to be seen? Could her name perhaps be—to speak Greek—Baubo?... Oh, those Greeks! They understood how to live: to do that it is necessary to stop bravely at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore the appearance, to believe in forms, in tones, in words, in the whole Olympus of appearance! Those Greeks were superficial—out of profundity!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)