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“Fires that shook me once, but now to silent ashes fall'n away. Cold upon the dead volcano sleeps the gleam of dying day.”
-Tennyson
Volcano Types:
Shield Cone: Circular base, gentle slopes, basaltic, non-explosive.
Cinder-cone: Small, steep, ejected material returns.
Composite Cone: Large, explosive, fragments plus lava.
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Past Volcanism on Mercury
Abundance of surface cratersNo craters more that 50 km in diameterEvidence of lava-filled cratersVolcanic rock samples predate EarthRock samples dated @ >3000 million years ago
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Volcanic Activity on Venus
80% of the planet’s surface shows volcanic activitySeveral million volcanoes have been detectedVenus is (debatably) volcanically extinctMany volcanoes are several hundred km across, and thousands of km high
NASA Photo: A Volcano on Venus
Largest volcanoes are shield-cone typeNo plate tectonics, which is part of how Earth coolsUnconfirmed cooling theories: hot spot volcanism and/or bubbling, blistering surface volcanoes
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Terrestrial Volcanism is a separate topic not covered here; please refer to your textbook, the internet, or other
relevant Earth-science resources.
The Moon
The dark spots on the
moon (maria) are large
depressions covered with basaltic lava flows, the result of volcanic activity that began over 3 billions years ago!
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Martian Volcanoes
Mars is almost volcanically extinct; this is debatable Martian volcanoes are probably all shield-cone typesMars has at least 3 volcanoes larger than those on EarthMars has the largest volcano in the solar system: Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons:
A Shield Volcano
on Mars
Earth’s Largest Volcano: Mauna Loa9 km high
120 km across
Olympus Mons:24 km high
550 km across
x 3 =
Mars ≈ 1/2 of Earth’s diameterOlympus Mons ≈ 3 times the size of Earth’s largest VolcanoHuge size disparity due to Mars’ stationary crust, henceenormous hot-spots that build-up in stationary positions
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Volcanoes on Io: A moon of JupiterThe most volcanically active place in the solar system
At least 8 active volcanoes have been mapped
Plumes extend ≈ 280 km above Io’s surface
Molten rock spews out faster than the speed of sound
The size of Io is ≈ Earth’s moon
Jupiter ≈ 318 times more massive than Earth itself
Io and Earth’s moon ≈ same orbit, but Io has greater
gravitational stress, causing huge amounts of internal heat
Io: One of Jupiter’s Moons
Io:
Images from Galileo’s Mission
(“Raw” images) (Digitally remastered)
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Volcanoes on Other Moons of Jupiter:
Europa and Ganymede have “Cryovolcanism!”
QuickTime™ and aPhoto - JPEG decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Triton: The seventh (and largest)of Neptune’sMoons also
features “Ice Volcanoes!”
QuickTime™ and aPhoto - JPEG decompressor
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Triton is the only large moon with a retrograde orbitTemperature equals Pluto’s ≈ -235ºCSurface contains only a few cratersThe surface is young; older features destroyed Ice Volcanoes! Liquid Nitrogen??
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?Scientists continue to search for evidence
of extraterrestrial volcanism……
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Websites Used for Research can be found at:www.deafscience.net
under the “Astronomy” category