Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Sun

“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.

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Sun Past Volcanism on Mercury Abundance of surface craters No craters more that 50 km in diameter Evidence of lava-filled craters Volcanic rock samples predate Earth Rock samples >3000 million years ago

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto Volcanic Activity on Venus 80% of the planet’s surface shows volcanic activity Several million volcanoes have been detected Venus is (debatably) volcanically extinct Many volcanoes are several hundred km across, and thousands of km high

NASA Photo: A Volcano on Venus Largest volcanoes are shield-cone type No plate tectonics, which is part of how Earth cools Unconfirmed cooling theories: hot spot volcanism and/or bubbling, blistering surface volcanoes

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto 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!

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto Martian Volcanoes Mars is almost volcanically extinct; this is debatable Martian volcanoes are probably all shield-cone types Mars has at least 3 volcanoes larger than those on Earth Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system: Olympus Mons

Olympus Mons: A Shield Volcano on Mars Earth’s Largest Volcano: Mauna Loa 9 km high 120 km across Olympus Mons: 24 km high 550 km across x 3 = Mars ≈ 1/2 of Earth’s diameter Olympus Mons ≈ 3 times the size of Earth’s largest Volcano Huge size disparity due to Mars’ stationary crust, hence enormous hot-spots that build-up in stationary positions

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto Volcanoes on Io: A moon of Jupiter The 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)

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto Volcanoes on Other Moons of Jupiter: Europa and Ganymede have “Cryovolcanism!”

Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto Triton: The seventh (and largest) of Neptune’s Moons also features “Ice Volcanoes!”

Triton is the only large moon with a retrograde orbit Temperature equals Pluto’s ≈ - 235ºC Surface contains only a few craters The surface is young; older features destroyed Ice Volcanoes! Liquid Nitrogen??

Saturn Uranus Neptune Sun Pluto Venus Mercury Earth Mars Jupiter ? Scientists continue to search for evidence of extraterrestrial volcanism…… ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Websites Used for Research can be found at: under the “Astronomy” category