The theme of these blogs will be planetary volcanism. I will be reading various articles and books and giving a general summary and my opinion. I intend to study past and present volcanism processes and the magma produced on other worlds in the solar system and compare them to the magma and volcanism processes on Earth.
Earth is the only known world in the solar system that has plate tectonics. We know tectonic plates are subducted under other plates and that causes majority of the volcanism on Earth, with exception of hot spots like Yellowstone and the Hawaiian Islands. So, what could possibly cause the volcanism that is currently taking place on Jupiter's moon Io, or the eruption of liquid nitrogen on Neptune's moon Trition? What caused Mars to be volcanically active millions years and how did Mars come to have the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, with out the aid of plate tectonics? By the end of this project I hope to answer these questions and many more.
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Since you are interested in the solar system, here's a clip posted on ted.com about the moons of Saturn that planetary scientists are exploring and it was really interesting so I thought I'd share it with you. It's not necessarily about volcanism, but there is some tectonism involved.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn.html
This sounds like a really interesting topic for your blog. I hope by the end of the semester you discover many more questions in addition to answering the questions you now have :)
ReplyDeleteCan the composition of the volanic ejecta on these other planets be determined based on optical techniques (spectra)?
This is a long shot, since even plate tectonics is not 'proved' outside of earth, but any chance of extremophiles on these heavenly bodies like we see on Earth, and who are the most likely candidates?
ReplyDeleteThat is, extremophiles in volcanic settings.
ReplyDelete