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Thread: cryovolcanoes on Titan

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    cryovolcanoes on Titan

    I know we've found potential methane-spewing volcanoes on Titan, but it seems to me a methane volcano on Titan would essentially be a geyser; collecting precipitation, heating it and then spewing it back onto the surface. A true cryovolcano would spew water lava, wouldn't it? Have we found a water lava volcano on Titan yet?

  2. #2
    cryovolcanic activity involves any liquids/gases appropriate to the temperature/pressure, not just water ice

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryovolcanism

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    9,761
    The Wiki article seems to be confused, since it stipulates that cryovolcanoes erupt cryomagma and that cryomagma condenses to a solid once erupted: analogous to rocky magma on Earth. So cryovolcanism, by that definition, involves anything that's liquid inside the planet but solid outside.
    However, the same article goes on to claim that methane eruptions on Titan are an example of cryovolcanism, despite the fact the (apparently) primary erupted material remains gaseous or liquid.
    Sigh.
    There's some interesting (pre-Huygens) work on cryogeysers with reference to Titan here.

    Grant Hutchison

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