Massive Lava Waves Detected on Jupiter’s Moon Io

From Gizmodo

Io is the closest thing we have to hell in our Solar System, a Jovian moon that features hundreds of active volcanoes and expansive lakes filled with lava. New observations suggests that the largest of these lakes, Loki Patera, produces enormous waves that repeatedly flow around the molten surface.

Thanks to a rare orbital alignment between Europa and Io, an international team of researchers has identified and tracked a pair of lava waves as they coursed around Loki Patera, which is larger than Lake Ontario, and with a surface area of 8,300 square miles (21,500 square km). The most likely explanation for this apparently periodic wave action is an overturning circulation pattern, in which cool surface crust slowly thickens and sinks, pulling nearby crust along with it in a wave that spreads across the surface. These findings are set to appear in the May 11 edition of Nature.

Back in the 1970s, scientists began to suspect that Io—Jupiter’s fourth largest moon—featured a tumultuous and dynamic surface. When the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes visited the Jovian system in the late 1970s, these suspicions were confirmed, revealing Io as the most volcanically active object in the Solar System. This tortured moon is embroiled in a gravitational tug-of-war between Jupiter and other Jovian satellites, causing intense tidal heating

http://gizmodo.com/massive-lava-waves-detected-on-jupiter-s-moon-io-1795088666

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