Silicates versus Sulphur - Searching for Clues about Ionian Vulcanism with Canaricam

Martín-Luis, F.; Kidger, M.; Anguita, F.; Llorca, J.; Ruiz, J.
Bibliographical reference

II International GTC Workshop: Science with GTC 1st-light Instruments and the LMT (Eds. A. M. Hidalgo-Gámez, J. J. González, J. M. Rodríguez Espinosa, and S. Torres-Peimbert) Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (Serie de Conferencias) Vol. 24, pp. 262-263 (2005) (http://www.astroscu.unam.mx/~rmaa/)

Advertised on:
12
2005
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Vulcanism was first detected on Io in 1978 by Voyager 1. Since then it has been recognised that Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. Although the initial volcanic activity observed was in the form of SO[2] geysers and sulphur lakes, the Galileo mission has detected temperatures as high as 1800K on the surface, far in excess of the temperatures that can be explained by sulphur-driven activity. Galileo observations suggest that silicate vulcanism is the principal driver of activity, even though the temperatures measured are even in excess of those measured in terrestrial silicate vulcanism, but the relationship between silicate and sulphur-driven activity is not well understood. We propose a project to monitor low-temperature vulcanism on Io systematically, using CanariCam on the GTC. This project will allow a better understanding of the mechanisms of sulphur-driven vulcanism, and the relative importance of silicate and sulphur-driven activity.