Deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, some 1600km (990 miles) from the coast of Japan lies the Shatsky Rise. Covering an area about the size of California, the Shatsky Rise is crowned by an extinct volcano the 4.4km (2.73 mi) tall Tamu Massif.
Although
the Tamu Massif’s peak isn’t in same stratosphere as Olympus Mons, the
shear size of its parent plateau places it among the largest geologic
features in the solar system. According to researchers, “Geophysical
data from Tamu Massif demonstrate that the huge volcanoes found on other
solar system bodies have cousins here on Earth.“ In fact, even more massive geologic features may exist on this planet. “After learning that Tamu Massif is an enormous volcano, now I would not be surprised if we found some other oceanic plateau is the same,” said University of Houston Professor of Geophysics William Sager.
Sager continued, “I know colleagues who are studying [the] Ontong Java Plateau, which is the biggest [plateau on Earth]… I have not heard their findings yet, but maybe one day they will say that it is one volcanic mass or a small number of coalesced features and then [it] will be the biggest volcano [on Earth].”
sources: www.engineering.com
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