Shield volcanoes gained their name from the fact that their profile against the horizon looks like a shield laying on the ground. The flanks of a shield volcano have low slopes, sometimes only a few degrees from horizontal. Shield volcanoes are the largest volcanic features on earth. The largest shield volcano, Mauna Loa in the Hawaiian Islands, has a volume 300 times greater than that of the largest stratovolcano, Mount Fuji in Japan. Shield volcanoes are created through the eruption of basaltic magmas, which flow easily and thus are capable of flowing over the landscape many miles from the central fissures or vents. The volcanoes observed on Mars are also classified as shield volcanoes. The largest one, Olympus Mons, is considered the tallest Mountain (24 km) in the solar system.