Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A volcano, about 25 km (16 mi) high, on Mars. It is the highest known mountain in the solar system.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun planetology An extinct volcano and prominent feature on the planet Mars, notable as the highest mountain in the solar system (elevation: 27 kilometers).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Named in 1973 after the albedo feature Nix Olympica ("Snows of Olympus").

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Examples

  • He was amused because I had written a mountain-climbing story about Olympus Mons, and recent results had shown that the escarpment of Olympus Mons was not as steep as thought before; 'you could ride a bicycle up it,' Clarke said to me.

    2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist: Jones, Mieville, Roberts, Robinson, Theroux, and Woodring Omnivoracious 2010

  • Jerry Pournelle: In Birth of Fire I made it a lot cheaper than that, by dropping nuclear weapons down Olympus Mons and waking the volcanoes.

    Waking the volcanoes: 1997 interview with authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle Paul 2009

  • Mangala Fossae is approximately 1000 km long, located south-west of the volcanic region Tharsis, where the highest known volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, is located.

    Mars Today Top Stories 2009

  • New research shows that Mars 'massive volcano, Olympus Mons, may have pockets of ancient, liquid water trapped beneath the mountain.

    NASA Astrobiology Magazine 2009

  • Swooping in over Olympus Mons, the largest volcano on Mars, you see lava flows and the Pangboche Crater.

    Dad2059's Webzine of Science Fiction, Science Fact and Esoterica 2009

  • "What we were analyzing was the structure of Olympus Mons, why it's shaped the way it is,"

    DailyTech News Feed 2009

  • New research shows that Mars 'massive volcano, Olympus Mons, may have pockets of ancient, liquid water trapped beneath the mountain.

    NASA Astrobiology Magazine 2009

  • The volcano in question, Olympus Mons, is around three times the height of Mount Everest on Earth, and may have water-formed clay.

    DailyTech News Feed 2009

  • Mangala Fossae is approximately 1000 km long, located south-west of the volcanic region Tharsis, where the highest known volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, is located.

    Mars Today Top Stories 2009

  • That’s a large 270 miles across and ancient volcano in a region many miles from where they made their initial discoveries, but close to Olympus Mons, the thirteen-mile-high volcano and mountain that is the largest in the solar system, nearly three times taller than Mount Everest.

    First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011

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