Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here there's a thrill like no
Speaker 1: other to reaching the peak of a mountain and looking
Speaker 1: down at the landscape below. And it turns out that
Speaker 1: our highest mountains here on Earth are actually some of
Speaker 1: the smallest in our Solar system. So what is the
Speaker 1: tallest mountain in the Solar System? The answer, its location
Speaker 1: and its monstrous size might surprise you. After all, there
Speaker 1: aren't that many other rocky planets and moons in the
Speaker 1: Solar System that are big enough to have a mountain
Speaker 1: larger than ours. But the tallest mountain in the Solar
Speaker 1: System is, in fact, Olympus Mons on Mars. This giant
Speaker 1: stratovolcano rises sixteen miles that's over eighty four thousand feet
Speaker 1: or twenty five kilometers above the surface of the red planet.
Speaker 1: It's one of a dozen huge volcanoes on Mars. For comparison,
Speaker 1: the tallest volcano on Earth, Monacheia, is less than half
Speaker 1: that size, just six miles over thirty three thousand feet
Speaker 1: or ten kilometers high, and only two fifths of that
Speaker 1: can be seen above the surface of the ocean. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: at the peak of Olympus Mons, a huge caldera or crater,
Speaker 1: stretches across some fifty miles or eighty kilometers wide, and
Speaker 1: the base of Olympus Mons is three hundred and forty miles.
Speaker 1: That's five hundred and fifty kilometers wide. Basically the length
Speaker 1: of the state of Mississippi. Olympus Mons is more than
Speaker 1: twice as tall as Mount Everest, which might seem odd
Speaker 1: given that Mars is half Earth's size by diameter, and
Speaker 1: scientists hypothesized that Olympus Mons and its monstrous siblings grew
Speaker 1: so tall due to three different factors. First, Mars is
Speaker 1: a much more volcanically active planet than Earth. While Earth
Speaker 1: certainly had a period of intense volcanic activity long ago,
Speaker 1: Mars has been much more volcanically active for longer. Additionally,
Speaker 1: the tectonic plates on Mars move more slowly than they
Speaker 1: do here on Earth. This allows huge mountains to form
Speaker 1: and remain, while giant mountains on Earth might be pushed
Speaker 1: under other tectonic plates, what paleontologists call the process of
Speaker 1: subduction or otherwise affected by tectonic activity. Finally, the pull
Speaker 1: of gravity on Mars is only about thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: as strong as it is on Earth due to differences
Speaker 1: in the mass of each planet. Paleontologists believe this may
Speaker 1: allow mountains to grow taller on Mars, since gravity doesn't
Speaker 1: pull the magma down the same way that it does
Speaker 1: on Earth. These forces together have allowed Olympus Mons to
Speaker 1: form as the biggest mountain in the Solar System and
Speaker 1: remain that way for over the billions of years in
Speaker 1: our Solar systems history. So how do the tallest mountains
Speaker 1: of our planet staff up? It depends on how you
Speaker 1: measure them. A Mount Everest is Earth's tallest mountain on land,
Speaker 1: rising nine thousand feet or eight thousand nine d. That
Speaker 1: actually doesn't make it the tallest mountain on the planet,
Speaker 1: though Monakea in Hawaii is considered the tallest when you
Speaker 1: measure it from the sea floor, rising again at thirty
Speaker 1: three thousand feet or ten kilometers. And if you want
Speaker 1: to get really technical, the tallest mountain from the center
Speaker 1: of the Earth is Mount Chimborazzo. This strato volcano in
Speaker 1: Ecuador rises over two thousand, three hundred feet or seven
Speaker 1: taller than Monakea. This is due to the Earth's centrical
Speaker 1: bulge of the fact that the Earth is actually slightly
Speaker 1: wider near the equator. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article the tallest mountain in the Solar System is much
Speaker 1: higher than Everest on House to Forks dot com, written
Speaker 1: by Valerie Stymach. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with House to fur dot com, and
Speaker 1: it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H