Elysium Mons is a volcano on Mars located in the volcanic province Elysium, in the Martian eastern hemisphere. It stands about above its base,
Discovery
Elysium Mons was discovered in 1972 in images returned by the Mariner 9 orbiter.
Terrestrial analog
The terrestrial volcano
Emi Koussi (in
Chad) has been studied as an analog of Elysium Mons. The two shield volcanoes have summit calderas of similar size, but Elysium Mons is 3.5 times larger in diameter and 6 times higher than its counterpart on Earth.
Possible source of nakhlites
A 6.5 km diameter crater at 29.674 N, 130.799 E, in the volcanic plains to the northwest of Elysium Mons has been identified as a possible source for the
nakhlite meteorites, a family of similar basaltic Martian meteorites with cosmogenic ages of about 10.7 Ma, suggesting ejection from Mars by a single impact event. The dates of the igneous rocks of the nakhlites range from 1416 ± 7 Ma to 1322 ± 10 Ma. These dates plus the crater dimensions suggest a growth rate of the source volcano during that interval of 0.4–0.7 m per Ma, far slower than would be expected for a terrestrial volcano. This implies that Martian volcanism had slowed greatly by that point in history.
Gallery
Elysium Mons 541A44 541A46.jpg|Viking program mosaic (1977)
MOLA elysium mons.jpg|Topography of the Elysium Mons area, from MOLA
Elysium Mons.gif| Mars Global Surveyor view of the summit area
Elysium Mons Caldera.JPG|Rim of Elysium Mons caldera, as seen by HiRISE
See also
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Geography of Mars
-
List of mountains on Mars by height
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List of tallest mountains in the Solar System
External links
