Mt Everest is just under 5.5miles high. Olympus Mons on Mars is 16 miles high. Why aren’t there much larger mountains on Earth? What’s the highest a mountain can go on Earth?
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Most mountains on earth are made via tectonic processes. Olympus mons is essentially a hot spot volcano that erupted in the same place for a long time because there are no plate tectonics on mars. Hot spots on earth also remain stationary, but the tectonic plates drift over them so there isn’t enough time for any single vent of the hotspot to create such a large pile of lava. The Hawaiian islands are a great example of this, the Hawaiian spot has been making large shield volcanos (like Olympus Mons) for at least 50my and perhaps a lot longer than that. Each vent is only active for a short period of time, it forms a large mountain akin to Mauna Kea before the plate drags the mountain away to be worn away by weather and waves. Then a new vent opens, and makes the next volcano. If there was no plate tectonics on earth, it’s possible we could have several large volcanos a lot closer in size to Olympus Mons. Gravity and erosion rates are limiting factors to height as well, but the main difference is the tectonic settings of the two planets.
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