Identifying Volcanism in the Solar System

Seite 1

The only active volcanoes in the Solar System are:

Io, a moon of Jupiter: Io is Jupiter's closest moon and orbits in a matter of hours. Heat arises in the core of Io as it becomes stretched and compressed by Jupiter's great gravity during it's orbit. The surface of Io is a mixutre of green and blue representing the different allotropes of sulfur compounds spewed from its volcanoes. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system

Triton, a moon of Neptune: the most distant know volcanically active body from the sun. Trition is a very large moon which in composition is almost identical to Pluto, its surface is almost craterless and it has an atmosphere composed largely of ammonia and nitrogen. Even from such a distance solar heating is thought to drive the volcanism and 'nitrogen geysers' have been observed.

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn: through the use of photography aboard the Voyager and Casini space probes Enceladus has been confirmed as a site of cryovolcanism - volcanism where volatiles like water, nitrogen and methane are erupted rather than liquid rock.

New Page