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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!”

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Triton: The seventh (and largest)of Neptune’sMoons also

features “Ice Volcanoes!”

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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