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Volcanoes
Factfile |
 Volcanoes |
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Volcanic Activity on other Planets |
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Did you know that there are volcanoes on other planets and the moon? The surface of the planet Mars for example, is very rocky with canyons and volcanoes much larger than any on our planet. Olympus Mons is a volcano, which is three times the size of Mount Everest at 27 km tall and over 520 km across.
Mars - NASA
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite (any object in space that orbits around another is called a satellite). Its surface is covered with craters from being hit by meteorites and asteroids millions of years ago.
The Moon - NASA
The Earth's Moon has no large volcanoes like Mars. However, enormous plains of lava cover most of the Moon's surface. Early astronomers thought these plains were seas of lunar water and so they were called "mare" (pronounced "mahr-ay"). Mare means "sea" in Latin and so for example, the Mare Tranquillitatis is the Sea of Tranquility.
There are many differences between the volcanic activity of Earth and the Moon. Many of the Earth's volcanoes are very young in geological terms, often less than 300,000 years old and are part of an ongoing process. In comparison, mare samples have been dated at 3,500,000 years old, with most volcanic activity appearing to have occurred between 3 and 4 billion years ago. Because the Moon does not show any evidence for recent geological or volcanic activity, it is sometimes called a "dead" planet.
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