Olympus Mons and hence lead to the low gradients on the surface of the planet. Olympus Mons is an unlikely landing location for automated space probes in the near future. The high elevations preclude parachute-assisted landings because the atmosphere is insufficiently dense to slow the spacecraft down. Moreover, Olympus Mons stands in one of the dustiest regions of Mars. A mantle of fine dust obscures the underlying bedrock, possibly making rock samples hard to come by and likely posing a significant obstacle for rovers. Olympus Mons is the result of many thousands of highly fluid, basaltic lava flows that poured from volcanic
Ascraeus Mons zone of knobby terrain outlined by a semicircular zone of concentric ridges. Similar deposits are also found at the northwestern edges of the other two Tharsis Montes, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons, as well as on Olympus Mons. The FSD at Ascraeus Mons is the smallest of those on the Tharsis Montes, covering an area of 14,000 km and extending outward from the volcano's base for about 100 km. The origin of these deposits has been debated for decades. However, recent geologic evidence suggests that FSDs are deposits left by glaciers, which covered portions of the volcanoes during a recent