Volcanos of the Solar System!

The Book of Mormon tells us that thirty-four years after the birth of Jesus a terrible destruction took place in America and that there were three days of darkness in which no light could be seen. In April of 1815 there were also three days of total darkness over many of the Indonesian islands. We know the reason for the darkness in America following Christ’s crucifixion but not the precise way it happened.

However, we know exactly how it happened that parts of Java and its neighboring islands were clothed in blackness. A volcano named Tambora on the island of Sumbawa literally “blew its top,” sending out twenty-four cubic miles of material in a dense blanket of dust and ash that encircled the entire globe and completely shut out all light within several hundred miles.

Powerful? You bet! Some scientists say that the Tambora explosion may have been the greatest ever witnessed by man. But there have been many other volcanic eruptions that have left their marks in history—Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Katmai, Paricutin, Mauna Loa. Many names from many lands remind us of the great forces at work beneath the surface of the earth. As we move into the space age, however, our list must be expanded. Now we must add names like Ascraeus Mons, Olympus Mons, and possibly even Beta. But where are these new giants to be found?

When the United States’ space probe Mariner IX first approached Mars in November 1971, the entire planet was masked by the great global dust storm that was described last month. After going into orbit, Mariner IX’s cameras soon revealed four big dark spots that stood out above the haze. At first, three of the spots that were lined up in a row were simply called North Spot, Middle Spot, and South Spot. The fourth one was called Nix Olympica—a name given years before by astronomers who could see it with powerful telescopes from earth.

When the dust storm finally settled down, all four features were found to be vast volcanos. New names were then given to them with the biggest, Nix Olympica, being renamed Olympus Mons. But just how big is big? Compared to Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on earth, Olympus Mons is five times taller. It is also twice as wide as the volcanic piles that form the major islands of Hawaii. And its caldera—the crater-like opening at its top—is about 40 miles across; while that of Kilauea, Hawaii’s largest, is twenty times smaller.

At the present time, Olympus Mons is the largest volcano that we know of for sure in the solar system. It is possible, however, that it may soon be ranked only second or third; for new studies of Venus have revealed what may be even greater volcanos there. The most likely feature on that planet to claim the “heavyweight title” is called Beta. On the earth, it would cover all of the state of New Mexico and extend into Colorado on the north, Arizona on the west, Texas on the east and southeast, and part of Mexico on the southwest—almost a fourth larger than Olympus Mons. And its caldera appears to be half again as wide.

Are the newly discovered volcanos of the solar system still active? There is presently no evidence that they are, but then many volcanos on earth have appeared lifeless until they violently exploded. Vesuvius, for instance, had never been known to erupt before it buried the city of Pompeii about forty-five years after the destruction in America as recorded in the Book of Mormon. So, who knows? Perhaps one day, across the vast expanses of space, a television camera on the Mars or Venus orbiter will relay a picture to us of one of these tremendous volcanos in action. It will be a scene all of us will be glad to view from a great distance!