The Volcanoes That Continue To Grow, Not Just On Earth

in science •  7 years ago 

Do you know that volcanoes are not just on planet Earth? Surprised? Our solar system is so unique, is not it!
In our marvelous solar system, volcanism is not just a domain on Earth alone. The eruption of a volcano that could spew a cubic kilometer of lava and its eruption almost as glorious as Krakatau 1883 can also be found in Io, one of Jupiter's satellites. It has even been found traces of volcanic eruptions that spew hot magma also detected in one of the major crevice valleys on Venus, the closest neighboring celestial bodies to our Earth. Why are the volcanoes able to grow on the various celestial bodies in our solar system? Is unique not it?

the striped is the Ganiki Chasma crevice valley, around the suspected cracks of mountains,wikimedia

You can do your own experiment, take a glass and put hot water into a glass. Make your favorite drink, either tea or other hot beverages. then place your palms on top of the glass. Hot? certainly. You may immediately lift your palms as it feels hot. But at least you have to wait until 5 minutes, it may seem very long, hahaha ... I am serious !!! HOT ...... It's enough then lift it, it feels sorry if anyone tried it but we need to prove it right! Then place your palms again, do you still feel the heat? It certainly does not feel as hot as it used to be. But it can not be said cold, but certainly less heat. But where does the heat go? Science has a simple answer. The heat from the water in the glass is transferred to the environment, either to the table or to the surrounding air. The heat is transferred either through the conduction process (between the glass and the table) or the convection (between the glass and the surrounding air). Once the balance has been reached, the water in the glass cools.

What we know is that volcanism that is also found in our solar system will follow the steps like the hot air travel from the water in the bowl. That is, volcanism is definitely just one form of heat release from a celestial body in its attempt to make the cold. So the heat source can come from internal (core and/or casing) or external. Of course, heat is channeled to the surface (crust) through conduction and/or convection process. From the crust, then the heat is then continuously emitted into space through the process of radiation as an electromagnetic wave with a spectrum range.

Hot and cold

Mount Tvashtar Patera as immortalized New Horizon (2007) as it passes Jupiter on the way to Pluto-dwarf planet.,wikimedia

Volcanism produces magma, as a material with a much higher temperature than the surface temperature/crust. Movement of magma from the deeper layer to vomit to the face of a celestial body is one of the distributions of heat. Based on magma temperature then, in general, there is at this time our solar system recognizes two types of volcanism. Namely hot volcanism (hot volcanism) and cold vulcanism (cryovolcanism). Hot volcanism produces magma temperatures between 800 to 1,200 ° Celsius alias as hot as a rock of liquid. The nature of magma liquid / dilute to thick. Magmanya dominated silicate compounds and alkaline/alkaline earth metals. It is also accompanied by volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide (sulfur gas), carbon dioxide and water vapor. Active hot volcanism at this time can be found on Earth, Io, and Venus.

So a cold form of volcanism certainly presents a low-temperature magma, located around the freezing point of water on Earth (0 ° Celsius) and could be bigger. As we know magma have very liquid properties and also dominated by nitrogen gas mixed with simple compounds such as methane and ammonia is also called water vapor. To us, this trait may seem strange, because water vapor can be found everywhere on our Earth. But make no mistake, cold volcanism occurs in celestial bodies whose average temperature is so cold freeze, well below the freezing point of water. So the existence of water vapor there is already classified as 'very hot' for the local size.


Triton dominates the Neptunian moon system, with over 99.5% of its total mass. This imbalance may reflect the elimination of many of Neptune's original satellites following Triton's capture..wikipedia

The presence of very active cold volcanism today can also be found on Neptune's Triton satellite and Saturn's satellite Enceladus. Very cold volcanism on the natural satellite of Neptune Triton was observed (for the first time and also the last time until now) in 1989 when the unmanned spacecraft of Voyager 2 spacecraft passed near the planet, Neptune. Voyager 2 also detects a number of geyser-like burst spots that can spew a material dominated by nitrogen gas with the same volume amount as in Kelud 2014 (Indonesia) eruption. While the cold vulcanism in Enceladus also detected by the Cassini spacecraft. Like the Voyager 2 spacecraft, Cassini has also detected geyser-like bursts. He pushed from the ranks of cracked valleys near the south pole of Enceladus.

In the place of origin, the heat contained objects in the sky that have become a place for very active volcanism at the present time in the solar system will be very different, of course. For Earth, Enceladus, Venus, and Io, the source is internal. The heat on the Earth's sheath and in the core is the result of the remnant of Earth formation about 4.5 billion years ago (10%) and decay in radioisotope radioactivity that is very long-lived. And almost entirely have come into being as heat flow and only less than 1% have contributed to the entire scope of volcanic and tectonic activity on Earth. The planet Venus may also have a very similar heat source, given that the dimensions of the planet are also similar to our planet Earth. It's just how much energy has been generated and how the proportion of primordial heat in the rest of Venus formation with all the radioactive decay remains unknown.

While Io he has the origin of heat that is not the same as the other. With fixed internal properties, here the force develops heat on Io, then it is in line with the process of interaction with the moon Ganymede and Europa and of course also the owner of the Jupiter. The Moon that orbits Jupiter (in the deepest orbit there is Io, while outside there is Ganymede) so that there will be orbital resonance. So it's the natural moon that is closest to the planet Jupiter, Io suffers the strongest resonance effect so it experiences the strongest tidal force. Then the friction that exists in the structure of Io also occur in a sustainable and produce heat that is large enough to drive activity volcanism. Therefore, tidal heating in Io generates power up to between 60 to 160 Gigawatts. Different again with Enceladus. The Cassini measurements show Enceladus releasing 4.7 Gigawatt heat. Like Io, Enceladus is also believed to suffer from the tidal style of interaction with the planet Saturn. But the tidal force is calculated to produce only one-fifth of the total energy released by Enceladus. So there are other sources of heat that until now still not known what shape.

Artist's Rendition of Triton,wikimedia

Another difference found in the satellite planet Neptune, Triton. Here the heat source is external, from the heating of the Sun of origin. The distance from the sun to Triton is very far, which is 4.5 billion miles away, it will make the environment freeze very cold. The face has a temperature of minus 236 ° Celsius, this will completely freeze compounds such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and methane. Cold volcanism is very likely formed by the surface of Triton which gets radiation from the sun. The heat of the sun can get trapped in clots when the sun shines on Triton on frozen and transparent nitrogen. So, in the long run, make it heated up. This is because the dense medium, very similar to what happens on Earth is the greenhouse effect (as well as Venus). It can be called a "solid greenhouse effect". When the temperature is minimum to 4 ° Celsius and higher than the surrounding environment, the nitrogen gas that is formed has been pressurized enough to be able to make a crack that can break the surface and then will spray at a height of 8 kilometers is very similar to a fountain that can exist up to a year later . By heating the Sun as its heat source, it is between the latitude of 50 ° to 57 °. then the whole volcanic Triton can be concentrated in the southern hemisphere. thanks

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references and related reading :

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/06181637-transient-hot-spots-on-venus.html
http://www.gishbartimes.org/2010/08/io-volcano-of-week-tvashtar-part-one.html
https://www.space.com/22223-triton-moon.html
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/solar-system/volcanoes.html
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/volcanoes/en/
https://geology.com/articles/active-volcanoes-solar-system.shtml
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12817402-500-science-greenhouse-effect-drives-geysers-on-triton/

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