Olympus Mons (;
Latin for
Mount Olympus) is a very large
shield volcano on the planet
Mars. By one measure, it has a height of nearly 22 km (16 mi). Olympus Mons stands almost three times as tall as
Mount Everest's height above sea level. It is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars, having formed during Mars's Amazonian Period. It is currently the largest volcano discovered in the
Solar System and had been known to
astronomers since the late 19th century as the
albedo feature Nix Olympica (Latin for "Olympic Snow"). Its mountainous nature was suspected well before
space probes confirmed its identity as a mountain.