Space · Mars · MOLA 2003 bounded shield section
Olympus Mons: terrain elevation and local relief
Olympus Mons reaches a sampled 21,249 meters above the MOLA GMM3 areoid in this dated Mars topography grid.
≈ 21,249 m
Data-derived estimate- Measurement
- Highest sampled elevation · MOLA GMM3 areoid
- Subject or version
- Mars · MOLA 2003 bounded shield section
- In feet, rounded
- 69,714.6 ft (1 ft = 0.3048 m)
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Terrain boundary, base and datum
- Vertical reference
- MOLA GMM3 areoid. Published surveys are separate; no datum conversion is applied.
- Highest sampled surface
- 21249.0 m at 17.339844°, -133.449219°.
- Local base
- -2219.0 m at 21.457031°, -139.582031°. Lowest sampled point within this bounded terrain section.
- Section bounds in IAU2000 planetocentric
- West -139.640625°, east -127.257813°; south 13.125000°, north 21.562500°.
- View and scale
- Orthographic map section facing north. Equal horizontal and vertical map scales. Approximate grid spacing: 442.0 m east-west and 463.1 m north-south. Lower and surrounding terrain omitted.
NASA Mars Global Surveyor MOLA Science Team / PDS Geosciences Node, MEGDR version 2.0.
A little more perspective
The Mars Global Surveyor MOLA MEGDR version 2.0 tile contains a highest topography sample of 21,249 meters at 17.339844°N,133.449219°W. The original product label independently records 21,249 meters as the dataset maximum. The sample is about 212 meters from the summit-rim location in Singh’s 2025 preprint, which is used only to check identity. Its blended-dataset height is not substituted into this MOLA-only raster.
This approximately 700-kilometer-wide cartographic section has 23,468.0 meters of local relief above its lowest sampled point, at 21.457031° latitude and -139.582031° longitude. That base belongs to the documented window; it is not a universal mountain base, topographic prominence or a climbing route’s ascent.
Original big-endian signed 16-bit median topography samples. The label defines GMM3 (mgm1025), degree/order 50 areoid and IAU2000 planetocentric coordinates. Longitudes are normalized from 0–360° east to -180–180°. Map distances use the documented 3396 km spherical radius with east spacing at the section center; north/south variation of east spacing and planetary curvature are not depicted. Source gridding includes interpolated bins. No summit correction, vertical exaggeration or Earth-datum conversion.
Quick facts
Olympus Mons reaches a sampled 21,249 meters above the MOLA GMM3 areoid in this dated Mars topography grid.
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Sources and measurement notes
- NASA PDS: MOLA MEGDR product definition, gridding and reference areoid
- Original MOLA product label: datum, coordinates, sample definition and extrema
- Singh 2025 non-peer-reviewed preprint: independently mapped summit-rim coordinate
- Original source elevation tile
Keep the named datum and bounded base with this terrain estimate.
Source review recorded . Maintained by Ishan Karunaratne. Suggest a correction with a source and the exact measurement being compared.