Tag Archive for 'Volcanism'

Image of the entire NWA 16254 sample studied by Chen et al.: (a) a backscattered electron (BSE) image obtained by the TESCAN Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA); (b) mineralogical mapping via TIMA; (c) distribution map of the iron content obtained via TIMA; (d) distribution map of the calcium content obtained via TIMA. Image credit: Chen et al., doi: 10.15302/planet.2025.25002.

Newly-Discovered Meteorite Offers Insights into Volcanic Processes on Ancient Mars

Jul 10, 2025 by Natali Anderson

The Martian meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 16254 is a 406-g gabbroic shergottite found two years ago in Algeria. Image of the entire NWA 16254 sample...

Backscattered electron image of the NWA 16286 sample. Image credit: Joshua Snape / University of Manchester.

2.35-Billion-Year-Old Lunar Meteorite Fills One-Billion-Year Gap in Volcanic History of the Moon

Jul 9, 2025 by News Staff

An analysis of Northwest Africa (NWA) 16286, a lunar meteorite with a unique chemical signature, offers fresh insights into how the Moon’s interior evolved,...

Artist’s impression of a volcano erupting on Venus. Image credit: ESA / AOES Medialab.

Venus May Be Even More Geologically Active Near Its Surface than Previously Thought

Apr 1, 2025 by News Staff

An unexpected phenomenon called convection could help explain many of the volcanoes and other features of the Venusian landscape. Artist’s impression...

A massive hotspot can be seen just to the right of Io’s south pole in this image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASA’s Juno on December 27, 2024, during the spacecraft’s flyby of the Jovian moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

Juno Detects Massive Volcanic Hotspot near Io’s South Pole

Jan 29, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-discovered volcanic hotspot is larger than Earth’s Lake Superior, and belches out eruptions six times the total energy of all the world’s...

The internal structure of Io as revealed by the present study. Image credit: Sofia Shen / NASA / JPL / Caltech.

Jupiter’s Moon Io Does Not Have Subsurface Magma Ocean, Study Suggests

Dec 13, 2024 by News Staff

Volcanic activity on Io — the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter and the most volcanically active body in the Solar System — is unlikely to...

Outcrop area of CAMP rocks in Pangea showing paleolatitudes at CAMP time (201 million years ago) of key localities with the terrestrial end-Triassic extinction including the Newark Basin (NB) in northeastern North America, the Fundy Basin (FB) of Atlantic Canada, and the Central High Atlas (CHA) Basin of Morocco. Image credit: Kent et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415486121.

New Research Casts More Light on Mechanisms of End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Oct 29, 2024 by News Staff

The end-Triassic extinction along with the end-Permian and end-Cretaceous events are the most severe mass extinctions in the past 270 million years. The...

This artist’s concept depicts a potential volcanic exomoon between WASP-49Ab (left) and its parent star. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Caltech.

Astronomers Find New Evidence for Volcanic Exomoon around WASP-49Ab

Oct 14, 2024 by News Staff

Using the ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the HARPS instrument at ESO’s La Silla 3.6-m telescope, astronomers have detected a...

This image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows a volcanic explosion on Io. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizon.

Planetary Scientists Create Global Map of Volcanic Hotspots on Io

Sep 20, 2024 by News Staff

Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. Io’s volcanoes are powered by both the extreme tides from Jupiter and the gravitational...

A comparison of the JunoCam image from February 2024 with Galileo spacecraft imagery of the same area in November 1997 (grayscale insert) reveals a new volcanic feature on the surface of Io. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Europlanet.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Discovers New Volcano on Io

Sep 13, 2024 by News Staff

Using images from the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have spotted a fresh volcano with multiple lava flows and...

Volcanic eruption producing glass beads on the Moon. Image credit: T. Zhang & Y. Wang.

Study: There Were Volcanic Eruptions on Moon as Recently as 123 Million Years Ago

Sep 6, 2024 by News Staff

There is extensive geologic evidence of ancient volcanic activity on the Moon, but it is unclear how long that volcanism persisted. Magma fountains produce...

Juno Spots ‘Hot Rings’ on Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io

Jun 27, 2024 by News Staff

These bright (hot) ‘thermal rings’ are a common phenomenon, and they are indicative of active lava lakes, according to a new analysis of data from...

This image, taken by the SHARK-VIS camera on the Large Binocular Telescope on January 10, 2024, is the highest resolution image of Io ever obtained by an Earth-based telescope. The image combines three spectral bands -- infrared, red and green -- to highlight the reddish ring around the volcano Pele (below and to the right of the moon’s center) and the white ring around Pillan Patera, to the right of Pele. Image credit: INAF / Large Binocular Telescope Observatory / Georgia State University / SHARK-VIS@LBT / P.I.F. Pedichini / D. Hope / S. Jefferies / G. Li Causi.

Large Binocular Telescope Spots Volcanic Event on Jupiter’s Moon Io

Jun 3, 2024 by News Staff

Using the SHARK-VIS instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in Arizona, the United States, astronomers have captured the highest resolution...

This image shows the Sif Mons area with the active volcanic region highlighted in red. Image credit: Davide Sulcanese, IRSPS - Università d’Annunzio.

Venus is Currently Volcanically Active, New Study Confirms

May 28, 2024 by News Staff

Using radar data from NASA’s Magellan mission, planetary scientists have detected volcanic-related flow features in two different regions of Venus: on...

This global view of Io was obtained in January 1999 by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Study: Jupiter’s Moon Io Has Been Volcanically Active for All of Its History

Apr 24, 2024 by News Staff

Sulfur and chlorine isotopes in Io’s atmosphere indicate that it has been volcanically active for the entire 4.57 billion-year history of the Solar System. This...

The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft imaged Io, the most geologically active body in our Solar System, on February 3, 2024, from a distance of about 7,904 km (4,911 miles). Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

NASA’s Juno Mission Provides Close-Ups of Intriguing Features on Io

Apr 19, 2024 by News Staff

In December 2023 and February 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, getting within about 1,500 km...

Noctis Mons. Image credit: NASA / USGS / Lee et al.

Planetary Scientists Discover Giant Shield Volcano on Mars

Mar 13, 2024 by News Staff

Provisionally designated Noctis Mons, the newly-discovered volcano is located just south of Mars’ equator, in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, west of Valles...

A topographic map of the Eridania region of Mars; volcanic structures described by Michalski et al. are classified by morphology and morphometrics. Image credit: Michalski et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02191-7.

Early Mars was Tectonically and Volcanically Active, Study Suggests

Feb 12, 2024 by News Staff

The relatively well-preserved ancient crust of Mars provides a natural window into early planetary evolution not available on Earth. Mars has generally...

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Captures Stunning Images of Jupiter’s Moon Io

Feb 9, 2024 by Natali Anderson

On February 3, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a second close flyby of Io, the fifth of Jupiter’s moons and the third largest. Like the previous...

An artist’s impression of the ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: Oleg Kuznetsov, http://3depix.com / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Low Volcanic Carbon Dioxide Emissions Triggered Sturtian ‘Snowball Earth’ Glaciation: Study

Feb 8, 2024 by News Staff

The Sturtian ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciation (717 to 661 million years ago) is regarded as the most extreme interval of icehouse climate in Earth’s history....

A map of the titanium abundances of the Moon’s surface, obtained from NASA’s Clementine spacecraft; the red parts indicate extremely high concentrations compared to terrestrial rocks. Image credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Scientists Solve Major Puzzle in Moon’s Geology

Jan 15, 2024 by News Staff

New research from the University of Bristol sheds light on the origin of titanium-rich basaltic magmas on the Moon. A map of the titanium abundances of...