Not everything is bigger in Texas. This volcano is about 401,300,000 kilometers (249,000,000 miles) away from Texas. Olympus Mons is the solar system’s largest volcano and it's located on Mars.

This massive volcano reaches a height 25 km (16 miles) above the surface level of Mars. Which means that this volcano is about three times the height of Mount Everest. It's 2.6 times higher than Mauna Kea, located in Hawaii, whose base is at the bottom of the ocean. Olympus Mons measures 624 km (374 miles) across at its base, which is about the same size as the state of Arizona (See below).

What makes it so big?

Scientists believe that the reason why the volcanoes on Mars are so large is because Mars never had plate tectonics. On Earth, the crustal plates are constantly moving above stationary hot spots. For example, the Hawaiian Islands are a result of the northwesterly movement of the Pacific plate over one of these stationary hot spots. As the plate moves over the hot spot new volcanoes are formed and others become extinct. The lava produced is then spread among multiple volcanoes rather than just one large volcano.

The plates on Mars remain stationary along with the hot spots. So the lava piles up in one location producing a single massive volcano.

(Photos courtesy of JPL/NASA)

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