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Although the cause of this internal heating is different
than on Earth, the consequences are the same: volcanoes!
Io's volcanoes are quite similar to terrestrial volcanoes like Hawai'i's
Kilauea:
Long-lived
eruptions, lasting 15 years or more.
Lava
travels through lava tubes
Lava
produces plumes when it contacts cooler materials
Io's volcanoes are different from Earth's in two important
ways: They are massive and very hot. They may be similar
to volcanoes that erupted early in Earth's history, and may
help us learn more about Earth's history.
Io's volcanoes are proving more active than scientists had
realized. Images from the Galileo spacecraft reveal recent lava
flows, such as those from the Tvashtar Catena. The orange-yellow
ribbon is a cooling lava flow more than 60 kilometers (37 miles)
long. Dark, diffuse deposits surrounding the active lava flows were
not there during Galileo's November 1999 flyby of Io.
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