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Topography of the shield volcano, Olympus Mons on Mars

S.S.C. Wu·P. A. Garcia·R. Jordan·F.J. Schafer·B.A. Skiff
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Abstract

Olympus Mons, one of the largest known shield volcanoes in the Solar System, covers an area of >3.2 ?? 105 km2and has a diameter of >600 km, excluding its vast aureole deposits. The structure is five times larger than the largest shield volcano on the Earth. It is situated on the north-west flank of the Tharsis volcanic region, a broad topographic rise on the martian surface. The volcano has three physical subdivisions: the summit caldera, the terraced upper flanks, and the lower flanks, which terminate in a scarp 2-10 km high that nearly surrounds the structure. A large block of images of the Tharsis region, including Olympus Mons, was obtained by the Viking mission1. Here we present a topographic map of Olympus Mons, compiled using various combinations of stereo pairs of these images, together with stereoscopic perspective views generated by image processing techniques. ?? 1984 Nature Publishing Group.

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S.S.C. Wu, P. A. Garcia, R. Jordan, F.J. Schafer, B.A. Skiff. 1984. Topography of the shield volcano, Olympus Mons on Mars. https://doi.org/10.1038/309432a0

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