Blow This Out Your...

Forget Mount St. Helens. Data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter suggests that some of the volcanoes on Mars, particularly Olympus Mons (nee Nix Olympica) may still be active (in geologic terms). St. Helens is a mere 9,000 some feet high (depending which year you measured it). Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the Solar System, is nearly 10 times as big, or ninety thousand feet high (88,600 feet to be precise)! The base of the mountain covers some 100,000 square miles, nearly the size of Arizona. An eruption there would be visible from Earth, not just from Portland, OR.