Silicates versus sulphur - searching for clues about ionian vulcanism with Canaricam

Abstract

Vulcanism was rst 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
SO2 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 observa-
tions 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 vul-
canism, but the relationship between silicate
and sulphur-driven activity is not well un-
derstood. We propose a project to monitor
low-temperature vulcanism on Io systemat-
ically, 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.