Earth-Mars Volcano Comparisons: Earth with Elevation Color Map

  • Released Thursday, April 22, 2004
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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.

Animation starts with the full (elevation color-mapped) Earth in view and zooms down to Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

Elevation color-mapped Earth seen from a distance.

Elevation color-mapped Earth seen from a distance.

Elevation color-mapped close-up of the Hawaiian Islands. Note, there is no water in these oceans, so the elevation map (bathymetry) of the ocean bottom can also be seen.

Elevation color-mapped close-up of the Hawaiian Islands. Note, there is no water in these oceans, so the elevation map (bathymetry) of the ocean bottom can also be seen.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio, and Virginia Butcher (SSAI)

This page was originally published on Thursday, April 22, 2004.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:56 PM EDT.

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