loess and life out of earth abstract loess is a homogeneous typically nonstratified porous friable slightly coherent often calcareous fine grained silty pale yellow wind blown aeolian and often by water reworked sediment that is distributed on continents world wide recent studies have highlighted the importance of biological loess crusts in trapping and transforming aeolian material into loess and also in prevention from wind and water erosion of deposited material some planets and satellites in our solar system are characterized by conditions comparable to those related to loess formation in terrestrial environments given the requirements for loess deposition on earth this study aims to ask the following questions 1 if loess like sediment formation is possible outside earth what are the mechanisms of sediment deposition and preservation 2 could the possible loess like sediments be stabilized through the activity of extraterrestrial equivalents of biological loess crusts found on earth as loess formation on earth is related to biological activity we propose a new direction in the search for extraterrestrial life evidence about extraterrestrial loess might indicate extraterrestrial life connected to loess formation on the basis of comparative analysis of some astrophysical conditions of seven celestial bodies we propose mars and titan and possibly venus and io to be assessed for evidence of loess deposition and the possible presence of related life forms and their biomarkers following recent advances in our understanding of terrestrial loess deposition we propose new indicators of extraterrestrial life research biomarkers in loess cyanobacterial and other microbial

thermal erosion by laminar lava flows thermal erosion by hot lavas during their laminar flow over cold ground is investigated both theoretically and experimentally an analysis of the steady forced convective heat transfer by a laminar channel flow at large peclet numbers is presented which is used to determine the final steady state erosion velocity as well as the thicknesses and timescales of the associated thermal boundary layers in both the lava and ground the initial transient period involving the growth and remelting of a basal chill layer is also quantified laboratory experiments are described in which hot molten wax flowed over and thermally eroded an underlying bed of solidified wax the experimental observations of chill formation and thermal erosion are found to be in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions the theory is applied to predict rates of thermal erosion consistent with those observed in recent flows of basaltic lava in hawaii and of carbonatite lava in tanzania

global color variations on io abstract visible and near infrared images of io from the galileo spacecraft reveal a surface more colorful than previously thought red yellow green white and black hues decorate the satellite presumably caused by a varied composition of sulfur compounds and silicates almost a third of io is covered by red and orange materials particularly at polar latitudes above 30 these red regions were scarcely distinguishable in the shorter wavelength voyager observations bright red pyroclastic deposits mark the locations of many hot spots plumes and visible surface changes providing a prominent flag of recent volcanic activity io s equatorial regions are dominated by yellow materials which occupy about 40 of the satellite s surface white and gray materials cover about 27 of io primarily in equatorial areas and in localized deposits at high latitudes these are identified with moderate to coarse grained so2 as mapped by the nims instrument on galileo r w carlson et al 1997 geophys res lett 24 2479 2482 greenish yellow materials in small isolated spots on io s anti jupiter hemisphere were recently discovered in 3 km pixel color imaging from orbit 14 unlike other ionian terrains these regions have a negative near infrared spectral slope suggesting contamination by a nonsulfur component only about 1 4 of io s surface is occupied by dark materials which display a variety of visible colors ranging from black to red and green most dark spots have a shallow spectral absorption feature at 0 9 m suggesting magnesium rich silicates rather than black sulfur little large scale alteration in the global color and albedo pattern has occurred between the voyager and galileo eras 90 of the surface appears unchanged despite the vigorous volcanic activity which must have taken place in the intervening 17 years this suggests that over a time scale of decades the bulk of io s resurfacing is restricted to a few small but persistently active areas

thickness constraints on the icy shells of the galilean satellites from a comparison of crater shapes a thin outer ice shell on jupiter s large moon europa would imply easy exchange between the surface and any organic or biotic material in its putative subsurface ocean1 2 3 4 the thickness of the outer ice shell is poorly constrained however with model dependent estimates ranging from a few kilometres5 6 to ten or more kilometres7 here i present measurements of depths of impact craters on europa ganymede and callisto that reveal two anomalous transitions in crater shape with diameter the first transition is probably related to temperature dependent ductility of the crust at shallow depths 7 8 km on europa the second transition is attributed to the influence of subsurface oceans on all three satellites3 8 9 which constrains europa s icy shell to be at least 19 km thick the icy lithospheres of ganymede and callisto are equally ice rich but europa s icy shell has a thermal structure about 0 25 0 5 times the thicknesses of ganymede s or callisto s shells depending on epoch the appearances of the craters on europa are inconsistent with thin ice shell models1 and indicate that exchange of oceanic and surface material could be difficult

shield volcano topography and the rheology of lava flows on io stereo and photoclinometry derived topography of shield like volcanoes on io indicate little relief 3 km and very low slopes 0 2 to 0 6 several shield volcanoes appear to be associated with broad rises of 1 to 3 km but only 5 shield volcanoes have been identified with steep flank slopes between 4 and 10 these steep slopes are restricted to within 20 30 km of the summit but where discernable most of the lava flows observed on these edifices occur on the outer flanks where slopes are less than a degree despite their abundance ionian shield volcanoes are among the flattest in the solar system the steepest volcanoes on io are most comparable to large venusian shield volcanoes using simplistic bingham rheologies we estimate the viscosity and yield strengths of ionian lavas yield strengths are estimated at 101 102 pa lower than most basaltic lavas viscosity estimates range from 103 to 105 pa s although these are probably upper limits actual values may have been as low as 100 pa s viscosity is sensitive to flow velocity which is poorly known on io the best constraint on flow velocity comes from observations of the 1997 pillan eruption which bracket the eruptive phase to 132 day maximum and more probably less than 50 days low slopes long run out distances and our estimated rheologic properties are consistent with but not proof of a low silica low viscosity high temperature composition for ionian lavas supporting arguments for low silica lava compositions such as basalt or komatiite we cannot eliminate sulfur on rheologic grounds however

estimation of volcanic eruption conditions for a large flank event on elysium mons mars mars orbiter camera image 5 23 m pixel and topographic data from the mars orbiter laser altimeter data are used to analyze a channel on the upper northern flank of the elysium mons volcano mars we show that this channel is best explained as the product of the thermal erosion of the preexisting surface by a high speed turbulent lava flow fed from a fissure eruption we deduce the volume eruption rate 3400 13 000 m3 s dense rock equivalent the total volume of erupted lava 29 39 km dense rock equivalent and the duration of the activity 40 130 days perhaps significantly the erupted lava volume is essentially identical given the uncertainties in the analysis to the volume of the observed caldera 31 km3 which has implications for volume limited eruptions on mars and potentially for the unusual steep upper slopes of the volcano the eruption that produced the channel appears to have been typical for elysium mons and implies that the other lava channels on the upper flank of the volcano may also have taken 1 4 months to have formed

the influence of mechanical anisotropy on the behaviour of the lower crust abstract the aim of this paper is to determine what can be deduced about the rheology of the lower crust undergoing extension the state of stress existing there and how the finite strain pattern is developed from a consideration of the theoretical analyses of layer normal compression analogue models and outcrops of rocks from the lower crust it is concluded that the extended lower crust contains units with a significant competence contrast has a high mechanical anisotropy and experiences bulk rheological changes during deformation based on a consideration of hydraulic fracturing in anisotropic materials it is argued that depending on the magnitude differential stress fluids will move through and out of the lower crust by fluid fracturing along the planar horizontal stretching fabric and gently inclined normal kink bands extensional shears or by the formation of vertical fractures

hydrothermal venting and the apparent magmatic budget of the juan de fuca ridge the fact that vigorous hydrothermal discharge occurs on ridge segments with a variety of spreading rates and morphological characteristics makes it difficult to discern the large scale geological controls on the distribution of hydrothermal venting along the mid ocean ridge we undertook to simplify this problem by mapping the distribution of hydrothermally produced thermal and light attenuation anomalies along the crest of the juan de fuca ridge a medium rate spreading center with segments of markedly differing morphology hydrothermal anomalies were detected by towing a high precision conductivity temperature depth transmissometer ctdt package in a sawtooth pattern through the lowermost 1000 m of the water column above each segment these surveys conducted between 1985 and 1989 have produced the first quantitative and continuous visualizations of hydrothermal plumes along a multisegment portion of the mid ocean ridge hydrothermal discharge is strongest on those segments or portions of segments where the apparent magmatic budget is highest as indicated by the degree of along axis inflation and other morphological characteristics this correspondence implies that magma is episodically delivered in small and spatially discontinuous bodies of melt rather than by the constant resupply of a steady state magma chamber we propose that the probability of discharge occurring at any point on the mid ocean ridge is proportional to the spreading rate this probability scaled by the observation that significant plumes presently emanate from 20 of the juan de fuca ridge is expected to range from 5 on the slowest spreading ridge to 50 on the fastest spreading ridge

surface changes on io during the galileo mission abstract a careful survey of galileo ssi global monitoring images revealed more than 80 apparent surface changes that took place on io during the 5 year period of observation ranging from giant plume deposits to subtle changes in the color or albedo of patera surfaces explosive volcanic activity was discovered at four previously unrecognized centers an unnamed patera to the south of karei that produced a pele sized red ring a patera to the west of zal that produced a small circular bright deposit a large orange ring detected near the north pole of io and a small bright ring near io s south pole only a handful of io s many active volcanoes produced large scale explosive eruptions and several of these erupted repeatedly leaving at least 83 of io s surface unaltered throughout the galileo mission most of the hot spots detected from ssi nims and ground based thermal observations caused no noticeable surface changes greater than 10 km in extent over the five year period surface changes were found at every location where active plumes were identified including acala which was never seen in sunlight and was only detected through auroral emissions during eclipse two types of plumes are distinguished on the basis of the size and color of their deposits confirming post voyager suggestions by mcewen and soderblom icarus 55 1983 191 smaller plumes produce near circular rings typically 150 200 km in radius that are white or yellow in color unless contaminated with silicates and frequently coat their surroundings with frosts of fine grained so2 the larger plumes are much less numerous limited to a half dozen examples and produce oval orange or red sulfur rich rings with maximum radii in the north south direction that are typically in the range from 500 to 550 km both types of plumes can be either episodic or quasi continuous over a five year period repeated eruptions of the smaller so2 rich plumes likely contribute significantly to io s resurfacing rate whereas dust ejection is likely dominated by the tenuous giant plumes both types of plume deposits fade on time scales of months to years through burial and alteration episodic seepages of so2 at haemus montes zal montes dorian montes and the plateau to the north of pillan patera may have been triggered by activity at nearby volcanic centers

the final galileo ssi observations of io orbits g28 i33 abstract we present the observations of io acquired by the solid state imaging ssi experiment during the galileo millennium mission gmm and the strategy we used to plan the exploration of io despite galileo s tight restrictions on data volume and downlink capability and several spacecraft and camera anomalies due to the intense radiation close to jupiter there were many successful ssi observations during gmm four giant high latitude plumes including the largest plume ever observed on io were documented over a period of eight months only faint evidence of such plumes had been seen since the voyager 2 encounter despite monitoring by galileo during the previous five years moreover the source of one of the plumes was tvashtar catena demonstrating that a single site can exhibit remarkably diverse eruption styles from a curtain of lava fountains to extensive surface flows and finally a 400 km high plume over a relatively short period of time 13 months between orbits i25 and g29 despite this substantial activity no evidence of any truly new volcanic center was seen during the six years of galileo observations the recent observations also revealed details of mass wasting processes acting on io slumping and landsliding dominate and occur in close proximity to each other demonstrating spatial variation in material properties over distances of several kilometers however despite the ubiquitous evidence for mass wasting the rate of volcanic resurfacing seems to dominate the floors of paterae in proximity to mountains are generally free of debris finally the highest resolution observations obtained during galileo s final encounters with io provided further evidence for a wide diversity of surface processes at work on io

factors influencing lava substrate heat transfer and implications for thermomechanical erosion we develop numerical simulations of basaltic lava flowing laminarly over a basalt substrate in order to examine the details of the lava dynamics and thermal boundary layers and to understand the implications for substrate heating as the initial stage of a larger study of thermomechanical erosion in different planetary environments we aim to understand why erosion occurs on earth why erosion features are not ubiquitous given the high temperatures involved and whether it is a plausible mechanism for the formation of planetary channels such as lunar sinuous rilles and venusian canali here we confine our attention to terrestrial lavas with well known properties and eruption parameters with relatively simple computational fluid dynamic simulations most closely representing tube fed hawaiian basalts for which erosion has been documented we demonstrate the importance of incorporating several key factors in models of lava flow substrate heat transfer which have commonly been neglected in previous treatments by addressing the interaction of the flow dynamics and heat transfer in the lava our work suggests that the development of a temperature gradient in the base of the lava even for undeveloped flow has a significant influence on substrate temperature the sensitivity of the lava substrate interface temperature to the thermophysical properties of the lava and substrate suggests that a delicate balance is required for partial melting to occur thus it might take weeks of continuous flow to initiate partial melting of the substrate at distances of several kilometers from the vent these durations exceed the periods of stability typical of lava flowing in tubes pauses blockages surges and breakouts frequently disrupt the flow however natural irregularities in the flow dynamics or substrate topography might help to initiate and maintain substrate melting on shorter timescales by disturbing the intimately coupled dynamic and thermal boundary layers although a purely thermal mechanism cannot be ruled out our findings support the premise that mechanical erosion may play a key role in reports of erosion based on field evidence

a potential thermal erosion lava channel on io 1 we have discovered a prominent 190 km long 0 5 6 km wide lava channel on io the channel is sinuous with interior islands and may be associated with the active tawhaki patera hotspot photoclinometric analysis of the galileo images indicates that this channel provisionally named tawhaki vallis is 40 65 m deep although a constructional contribution cannot be ruled out the depth morphology and sinuosity of the channel is consistent with erosion by lava erosion of flowing silicate over silicate substrate or flowing sulfur over sulfur substrate likely requires eruption durations of days to months to form an 50 m deep channel whereas flowing silicate over a sulfur substrate or flowing sulfur over a frozen so2 substrate would likely require only hours to days future spacecraft observation of actively forming lava channels on io are possible and desirable

a komatiite analog to potential ultramafic materials on io ultramafic volcanism is one model which fits currently available data for some eruptions on jupiter s moon io assuming that such activity does occur it is possible to apply komatiitic analogs and terrestrial ultramafic flow models to io we have used such analogs and models along with galileo data to investigate the nature of ultramafic materials that are assumed to occur at high temperature hotspots on io the unusual komatiites of the commondale greenstone belt south africa are consistent with available galileo data on the temperatures and composition of potential ionian ultramafic materials these komatiites had high sio2 50 wt and mgo 31 wt contents which are inferred to result in high liquidus temperatures 1610 c low dynamic viscosities 0 2 pa s and low densities 2680 kg m and in the crystallization of orthopyroxene phenocrysts not found in other komatiites we used the commondale composition and the model of williams et al 1998 to investigate potential ultramafic flow behavior on io compared to their terrestrial counterparts ionian ultramafic lava flows would have less potential for turbulent flow lower maximum emplacement distances and lower thermal erosion rates because of the lower ionian gravity and their more silicic composition shallow 10 m thermal erosion channels seem less likely on io unless 1 lavas are superheated 2 lavas are more ultramafic 31 mgo 3 eruption rates eruption durations or flow volumes are high or 4 substrates are unconsolidated partly consolidated or volatile rich and thus more erodable if volatiles are present in the lava as vesicles then increasing lava vesicularity results in decreasing maximum emplacement distances decreasing thermal erosion rates and decreasing erosion channel depths for given eruption durations

komatiites i eruption and flow because of their high eruption temperatures and ultrabasic composition komatiite lavas had low viscosities which typically ranged from 0 1 to 10 pa s a major consequence of this low viscosity is that most lavas erupted as turbulent flows an analysis of their ascent through the lithosphere suggests ascent velocities in the range of 1 to over 10ms 1 and reynolds numbers much greater than the critical value of 2000 the lavas would have remained turbulent for most or all of their subsequent flow and emplacement typical horizontal flow rates are estimated to range from 0 5 to 100 m2 s per unit width of flow such turbulent lava flows would have lost their heat by convection to the surroundings at rates which are orders of magnitude greater than the rates for laminar flows which cool by conduction a quantitative analysis of the cooling of komatiites indicates cooling rates from over 1000 c hr to a few c hr 1 while the flows remained turbulent these rates are in an appropriate range to cause phenomena such as high nucleation rates strong supersaturation of the lava delayed nucleation of olivine and skeletal or dendritic crystal morphologies komatiites often flowed over ground composed of rocks with lower melting temperatures it is proposed that the turbulent lavas melted the ground to form deep thermal erosion channels melting rates at the lava source are calculated at several metres per day and deep troughs with depths of several metres to hundreds of metres and lengths of several kilometres probably formed laboratory experiments performed to simulate thermal erosion show qualitative agreement with the theory with channel depth decreasing downstream the experiments also revealed that the channel margins become undercut during thermal erosion to form overhanging sides of the channel some sinuous rilles observed in the mare regions of the moon are thought to have formed by thermal erosion hulme 1973 they provide analogues of the channels postulated to form in komatiite eruptions where conditions were in fact more favourable for thermal erosion an assessment of the role of olivine crystals precipitated in the cooling turbulent flows indicates that they will remain in suspension until the lava has come to rest contamination of komatiite lava by underlying rock can be as much as 10 per cent some illustrative calculations show how the major element and trace element compositions of residual melts can be significantly modified by combined assimilation and fractional crystallization in a moving flow assimilation of tholeiitic basalt into a komatiite can cause incompatible trace element ratios such as ti zr and y zr and the rare earth patterns of derivative lavas to vary substantially some of the variations in such geochemical parameters which are often ascribed to mantle heterogeneity also could have resulted from assimilation of the ground assimilation could have modified the isotope geochemistry of lava suites and led to apparent ages which differ from the true eruption age the thermal erosion model also provides an explanation of the formation of some nickel sulphide ores found at the bottom of thick komatiite flows it is proposed that ores can form by assimilation of sulphur rich sediment which combines with ni from the komatiite to form an immiscible liquid

carbonate sulfate volcanism on venus abstract venusian canali outflow channels and associated volcanic deposits resemble fluvial landforms more than they resemble volcanic features on earth and mars some canali have meandering habits and features indicative of channel migration that are very similar to meandering river channels and flood plains on earth venusian outflow channels closely resemble water carved outflow channels on mars and the channeled scabland in washington collapsed terrains at the sources of some venusian channels resemble chaotic terrains at the sources of martian outflow channels venusian lava deltas are similar to bird s foot deltas such as the mississippi delta and venusian valley networks indicate sapping the depositional fluvial type features deltas braided bars and channeled plains are generally among the smoothest terrains at the magellan radar wavelength 12 6 cm on venus these features suggest the involvement of an unusual lava unexpected processes and or extraordinary eruption conditions possibly the lava was an ordinary silicate lava such as basalt or a less common type of silicate lava and conditions unique to venus or to those particular eruptions may have caused an unusual volcanological behavior we have developed the alternative possibility that the lava had a water like rheology and a melting point slightly greater than venus surface temperature thus accounting for the unusual behavior of the lava unlike silicate lavas some carbonatites including carbonate sulfate rich liquids have these properties thus they can flow great distances while retaining a high fluidity significant mechanical erosiveness and substantial capacity to transport and deposit sediment venusian geochemistry and petrology are consistent with extensive eruptions of carbonatite lavas which could have crustal and or mantle origins venus atmosphere especially co 2 hcl and hf abundances and rocks may be in local chemical equilibrium which suggests that the upper crust contains large amounts of calcite anhydrite and other salts chemical analyses indicate according to some models that venusian rocks may contain 4 19 calcite and anhydrite mixtures of crustal salts could melt at temperatures a few tens to a few hundred kelvins higher than venus surface temperature hence melting may be induced by modest endogenetic or impact heating salts may have many of the same geologic roles on venus as water and ice have on mars a molten salt carbonatite aquifer may exist beneath a few hundred meters to several kilometers of solidified salt rich permafrost many geologic features can be explained by carbonatite magmatism 1 impact melting of crustal salts can explain crater outflows 2 small sustained eruptions from molten salt aquifers can explain sapping valleys 3 large sustained eruptions may explain canali and their flood plans and 4 catastrophic outbursts may have formed outflow channels and chaotic terrain landforms created by carbonate rich lavas would be thermally stable on venus surface though some minerals may weather to other solid substances

geologic mapping of the hi iaka and shamshu regions of io abstract we produced regional geologic maps of the hi iaka and shamshu regions of io s antijovian hemisphere using galileo mission data to assess the geologic processes that are involved in the formation of io s mountains and volcanic centers observations reveal that these regions are characterized by several types of volcanic activity and features whose orientation and texture indicate tectonic activity among the volcanic features are multiple hotspots and volcanic vents detected by galileo one at each of the major paterae hi iaka shamshu and tawhaki we mapped four primary types of geologic units flows paterae floors plains and mountains the flows and patera floors are similar but are subdivided based upon emplacement environments and mechanisms the floors of hi iaka and shamshu paterae have been partially resurfaced by dark lava flows although portions of the paterae floors appear bright and unchanged during the galileo mission this suggests that the floors did not undergo complete resurfacing as flooding lava lakes however the paterae do contain compound lava flow fields and show the greatest activity near the paterae walls a characteristic of pele type lava lakes mountain materials are tilted crustal blocks that exhibit varied degrees of degradation lineated mountains have characteristic en echelon grooves that likely formed as a result of gravitational sliding undivided mountains are partially grooved but exhibit evidence of slumping and are generally lower elevation than the lineated units debris lobes and aprons are representative of mottled mountain materials we have explored the possibility that north and south hi iaka mons were originally one structure we propose that strike slip faulting and subsequent rifting separated the mountain units and created a depression which by further extension during the rifting event became hi iaka patera this type of rifting and depression formation is similar to the mechanism of formation of terrestrial pull apart basins with comparison to other regional maps of io and global studies of paterae and mountains this work provides insight into the general geologic evolution of io

observations on basaltic lava streams in tubes from kilauea volcano island of hawai i from 1986 to 1997 the pu u o o kupaianaha eruption of kilauea produced a vast pahoehoe flow field fed by lava tubes that extended 10 12 km from vents on the volcano s east rift zone to the ocean within a kilometer of the vent tubes were as much as 20 m high and 10 25 m wide on steep slopes 4 10 a little farther away from the vent some tubes formed by roofing over of lava channels lava streams were typically 1 2 m deep flowing within a tube that here was typically 5 m high and 3 m wide on the coastal plain 1 tubes within inflated sheet flows were completely filled typically 1 2 m high and several tens of meters wide tubes develop as a flow s crust grows on the top bottom and sides of the tubes restricting the size of the fluid core the tubes start out with nearly elliptical cross sectional shapes many times wider than high broad flat sheet flows evolve into elongate tumuli with an axial crack as the flanks of the original flow were progressively buried by breakouts temperature measurements and the presence of stalactites in active tubes confirmed that the tube walls were above the solidus and subject to melting sometimes the tubes began downcutting progressive downcutting was frequently observed through skylights a rate of 10 cm d was measured at one skylight for nearly 2 months

emplacement and erosion by archean komatiite lava flows at kambalda revisited we have developed a mathematical model to evaluate the flow and erosional potential of submarine channelized komatiite lavas at kambalda western australia field data from kambalda were used to constrain the choice of important input parameters and model results were compared with data from field studies and geochemical analyses our results suggest that thermal erosion is strongly dependent upon the nature and behavior of the substrate if the substrate is treated as an unconsolidated hydrous sediment that can be fluidized by vaporized seawater then our model predicts that an initially 10 m thick basal kambalda komatiite lava could have produced very high thermo mechanical erosion rates 23 10 m day crustal thicknesses of 5 20 cm at distances of 5 35 km from the source and a high degree of lava contamination 3 12 in contrast if the substrate is treated as a more consolidated anhydrous sediment that could not be fluidized then our model predicts that a kambalda komatiite flow would have had much lower thermal erosion rates 1 2 0 4 m day and degrees of contamination 1 3 and would have had crustal thicknesses of 5 20 cm at longer flow distances of 30 165 km field constraints are generally consistent with our predictions for a non fluidized substrate the reentrant embayments at kambalda are thought to form from either erosion of deep channels in a flat basaltic seafioor huppert et al 1984 or erosion of a thin 5 m sediment with minor undercutting of basalt in pre existing topography lesher et al 1984 our modeling indicates that the former was possible for long eruption durations months whereas the latter was possible for short eruption durations 2 weeks as the latter hypothesis is more consistent with the existing field evidence for thermal erosion at kambalda we believe it is the preferred interpretation

io in the near infrared near infrared mapping spectrometer nims results from the galileo flybys in 1999 and 2000 galileo s near infrared mapping spectrometer nims observed io during the spacecraft s three flybys in october 1999 november 1999 and february 2000 the observations which are summarized here were used to map the detailed thermal structure of active volcanic regions and the surface distribution of so2 and to investigate the origin of a yet unidentified compound showing an absorption feature at 1 m we present a summary of the observations and results focusing on the distribution of thermal emission and of so2 deposits we find high eruption temperatures consistent with ultramafic volcanism at pele such temperatures may be present at other hot spots but the hottest areas may be too small for those temperatures to be detected at the spatial resolution of our observations loki is the site of frequent eruptions and the low thermal emission may represent lavas cooling on the caldera s surface or the cooling crust of a lava lake high resolution spectral observations of emakong caldera show thermal emission and so2 within the same pixels implying that patches of so2 frost and patches of cooling lavas or sulfur flows are present within a few kilometers from one another thermal maps of prometheus and amirani show that these two hot spots are characterized by long lava flows the thermal profiles of flows at both locations are consistent with insulated flows with the amirani flow field having more breakouts of fresh lava along its length prometheus and amirani each show a white ring at visible wavelengths while so2 distribution maps show that the highest concentration of so2 in both ring deposits lies outside the white portion visible measurements at high phase angles show that the white deposit around prometheus extends into the so2 ring this suggests that the deposits are thin and that compositional or grain size variations may occur in the radial direction so2 mapping of the chaac region shows that the interior of a caldera adjacent to chaac has almost pure so2 the deposit appears to be topographically controlled suggesting a possible origin by liquid flow

evaluation of sulfur flow emplacement on io from galileo data and numerical modeling galileo images of bright lava flows surrounding emakong patera have been analyzed and numerical modeling has been performed to assess whether these flows could have resulted from the emplacement of sulfur lavas on io images from the solid state imaging ssi camera show that these bright white to yellow emakong flows are up to 370 km long and contain dark sinuous features that are interpreted to be lava conduits 300 500 m wide and 100 km long near infrared mapping spectrometer nims thermal emission data yield a color temperature estimate of 344 k 60 k 131 c within the emakong caldera we suggest that these bright flows likely resulted from either sulfur lavas or silicate lavas that have undergone extensive cooling pyroclastic mantling and or alteration with bright sulfurous materials the emakong bright flows have estimated volumes of 250 350 km3 similar to some of the smaller columbia river basalt flows if the emakong flows did result from effusive sulfur eruptions then they are orders of magnitude greater in volume than any terrestrial sulfur flows our numerical modeling results show that sulfur lavas on io could have been emplaced as turbulent flows which were capable of traveling tens to hundreds of kilometers consistent with the predictions of sagan 1979 and fink et al 1983 our modeled flow distances are also consistent with the measured lengths of the emakong channels and bright flows modeled thermal erosion rates are 1 4 m d 1 for flows erupted at 140 180 c which are consistent with the melting rates of kieffer et al 2000 the emakong channels could be thermal erosional in nature however the morphologic signatures of thermal erosion channels cannot be discerned from available images there are planned galileo flybys of io in 2001 which provide excellent opportunities to obtain high resolution morphologic and color data of emakong patera such observations could along with further modeling provide additional information to better constrain whether sulfur lavas produced the emakong flows

the summer 1997 eruption at pillan patera on io implications for ultrabasic lava flow emplacement galileo data and numerical modeling were used to investigate the summer 1997 eruption at pillan patera on io this event now defined as pillanian eruption style keszthelyi et al this issue included a high temperature 1600 c possibly ultrabasic 140 km high plume eruption that deposited dark orthopyroxene rich pyroclastic material over 125 000 km2 followed by emplacement of dark flow like material over 3100 km2 to the north of the caldera we estimate that the high temperature energetic episode of this eruption had a duration of 52 167 days between may and september 1997 with peak eruption temperatures around june 28 1997 galileo 20 m pixel 1 images of part of the pillan flow field show a widespread rough pitted surface that is unlike any flow surface we have seen before we suggest that this surface may have resulted from 1 a fractured lava crust formed during rapid low viscosity lava surging perhaps including turbulent flow emplacement 2 disruption of the lava flow by explosive interaction with a volatile rich substrate or 3 a combination of 1 and 2 with or without accumulation of pyroclastic materials on the surface well developed flow lobes are observed suggesting that this is a relatively distal part of the flow field shadow measurements at flow margins indicate a thickness of 8 10 m we have modeled the emplacement of putative ultrabasic flows from the summer 1997 pillan eruption using constraints from new galileo data results suggest that either laminar sheet flows or turbulent channelized flows could have traveled 50 150 km on a flat unobstructed surface which is consistent with the estimated length of the pillan flow field 60 km our modeling suggests low thermal erosion rates 20 m erosion channels was unlikely especially distal to the source we calculate a volumetric flow rate of 2 7 103 m3 s 1 which is greater than those for typical mauna loa kilauea flows but comparable to those for the 1783 laki eruption and the inferred flow rates of the roza flows in the columbia river flood basalts the differences in ultrabasic eruption styles on earth and io appear to be controlled by the different eruption environments plumes at sites of ultrabasic eruptions on io suggest strong magma volatile interactions on a low gravity body lacking an atmosphere whereas the geology at sites of komatiite eruptions on earth suggest mostly submarine emplacement of thick flows with a pronounced lack of subaerial explosive activity