Three Massive Volcanic Outbursts Exploded from Jupiter's Moon Io in August

Three massive volcanic eruptions that occurred on Jupiter's moon, Io, in August 2013 have made astronomers think twice about how often these outbursts occur. Since the eruptions happened within just a two-week period, scientists are considering that they might be far more common than once thought.

Io is the innermost of Jupiter's four "Galilean" moons. About 2,300 miles across, it's the only known place in the solar system, aside from Earth, with volcanoes erupting extremely hot lava. Because of its low gravity, the eruptions on Io spew lava into the air that can rise high into space.

"We typically expect one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this bright," said Imke de Pater, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Here we had three extremely bright outbursts, which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them on Io."

The recent eruptions spewed tens of cubic miles of lava over hundreds of square miles in a short period of time. All three events, including the largest and most powerful of the trio, were likely characterized by "curtains of fire" as lava blasted out of fissures that were possibly several miles long.

In fact, the eruptions on Io are probably similar to those that shaped the surfaces of inner solar system planets, such as Earth and Venus, when they first began to form. This means that Io can tell scientists quite a bit about planet formation.

"We are using Io as a volcanic laboratory, where we can look back into the past of the terrestrial planets to get a better understanding of how these large eruptions took place, and how fast and how long they lasted," said Ashley Davies, a volcanologist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Currently, the scientists hope to continue to monitor Io's surface annually in order to find out a bit more about the style of volcanic eruptions there. Eventually, they aim to map the spatial distribution of the heat flow and potential variations over time in order to better understand the heating and cooling processes on Io.

The findings are published in two papers in Icarus here and here.