Ice volcanoes on Enceladus (image: NASA)
A spectacular volcanic eruption in Iceland on April 15 has forced airlines to divert flights to avoid flying through gas emissions from the blast. During the late 18th Century, continuous volcanic eruptions in Iceland heavily damaged a quarter of the island nation, and blotted out the sun’s light for several years.
Volcanic eruptions are perhaps the most dramatic events that occur on Earth. But our blue planet is not the only place in Solar system the vulcanoes erupt.
Volcanic activity has been significant in shaping the surface of the rocky planets and in some of the moons in the outer solar system.
Evidence of past volcanic activity has been found on Moon, Mercury, Mars and other planets or their moons. The largest volcano in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars. These volcanoes were active millions of years ago – when our solar system was younger and the planets and moons had much higher internal temperatures.
Active volcanoes are ones that are currently erupting or that have erupted at some time in human space exploration history.
Volcano is not only open surface through which molten rock material, gases and ash escape. The volcanoes in planets or moon beyond Mars are often cryovolcanoes. Instead of erupting molten rock they erupt cold or frozen gases such as water, ammonia or methane.
The most active solar system bodies (except the Earth):
1. Jupiter’s Moon Io is the most active body in our solar system. It is a very tiny moon that is enormously influenced by the gravity of the giant planet. Tides produce a tremendous amount of internal friction which heats the moon, and enables the intense volcanic activity. erupt sulfur, sulfur dioxide and silicate rock, and as a result, Io is constantly being resurfaced. The largest recorded volcanic eruptions in the solar system occurred on Io in 2001.
2. Cryovolcanoes (ice volcanoes) were first observed in 1989 when Voyager 2 made a flyby of Neptune’s moon Triton.
3. On Enceladus cryovolcanoes were discovered by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The spacecraft imaged jets of icy particles venting from the south polar region.
4. Recent infrared data from an instrument on the Venus Express spacecraft indicate there could be active volcanism on Venus. In some places the lava flows are younger than 2.5 million years, possibly even as young as a few hundred to tens of thousands of years old and 9 ‘hotspots’ on southern hemisphere have been identified as possibly active.
5. Moons of Jupiter Ganymede and Europa also appears to have an active cryovolcanic system. Cassini spacecraft also found evidence of a methane-spewing cryovolcano on the Saturnian moon Titan, which is believed to be a significant source of the methane found in its atmosphere. It is theorized that cryovolcanism may also be present on the Kuiper Belt Object Quaoar.
Loading ...
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Eruption in Iceland is like in movie “2012″! Also remember earthquakes in South America and China. What next???