Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: Earth with Elevation Color Map
Visualizations by
Alex Kekesi
Released on April 22, 2004
Despite the 2:1 relative size difference between Earth and Mars, the Martian volcano, Olympus Mons, dwarfs Earth's Mauna Loa, Hawaii volcano. When measured from the ocean floor, Mauna Loa is approximately 10km. high compared to Olympus Mons at 23km. This animation is one element of the Earth-Mars comparison, showing a bare Earth (no oceans) via an elevation color map. This color map is the same one used to map Mars in Animation #2868. Instead of using sea level as zero (i.e., yellow) we use Earth's mean elevation which is approximately 1 km. below sea level. We then map the higher elevations in greens, reds, and white at the highest peaks, and blue and purple are used for the low lying areas. This animation is match-framed to animations #2864 through #2872.