Could Living Organisms Be Hiding Inside Olympus Mons?
Written by Nancy Atkinson From orbit, Olympus Mons dominates the landscape of the Tharsis region on Mars. At 24 kilometers (15 miles) high, and 550 kilometers (340 miles) in diameter, the huge volcano is over three times larger than Mount Everest. But Olympus Mons has a structure that is somewhat lopsided: it is elongated to the northwest, shortened to the southeast. A new study reveals that the ‘lopsidedness’ may mean warm magma and possibly water could be close enough to Olympus Mons’ surface to support thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria like those found near hydrothermal vents on Earth. While no volcanic activity has ever been seen or detected in Olympus Mons by orbiting spacecraft, the surface of the northwestern scarp has been dated from 115 million years old down to a region that is only 2 million years old. This is very recent in geological terms, suggesting that the mountain may yet have some ongoing volcanic activity. To try and understand why Olympus Mons in lopsided, resear
