Olympus Mons. Computer artwork looking down on the Olympus Mons shield volcano on Mars. North is at bottom. Ice (white) lies on its upper slopes that tower 24 kilometres above the surrounding plain. Steep cliffs surround the volcano, rising a sheer 10 kilometres. Shield volcanoes are flat, and Olympus Mons is a massive 600 kilometres across and is the largest mountain in the solar system. The topography of this artwork was drawn with Terragen software, using data from the laser altimeter on the Mars Global Surveyor probe.