When volcanoes go to metal | EurekAlert! Science News

What would a volcano – with the lava flowing – look like on the body of a planet usually made of metal? A pilot study from North Carolina State University offers insights into ferrovolcanism that could help scientists explain landscape features to another world.

Volcanoes form when magma erupts, which is made up of the molten solids beneath the surface of a planet. On Earth, that magma is molten rock, made up largely of silica. But not all planetary bodies are made of rock – some can be largely frozen or even metallic.

“Cryovolcanism is a volcanic activity on a frozen world, and we’ve seen it happen on Saturn Enceladus’ moon, ”said Arianna Soldati, assistant professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the work. “But ferrovolcanism, a volcanic activity on a metabolic world, has not been observed.”

Enter 16 Psyche, an asteroid with a diameter of 140 miles located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Its surface, according to infrared and radar observations, is predominantly iron and nickel. 16 Psyche is the subject of NASA’s upcoming mission, and prompted the asteroid Soldati to imagine what volcanic activity would look like in a metallic world.

“When we look at images of a world unlike ours, we still use what happens on Earth – as evidence of volcanic eruptions – to explain them,” Soldati says. We have a widespread metallic volcanism on Earth, so we need to imagine what these volcanic processes would look like in another world so that we can interpret images correctly. “

Soldati describes two possible types of ferrovolcanism: Type 1, or pure ferrovolcanism, appearing on purely metallic bodies; and Type 2, sputum ferrovolcanism, appearing on rock-metallic hybrid bodies.

In a pilot study, Soldati and colleagues from the Syracuse Lava Project produced a Type 2 ferrovolcanism product, in which metal separates from rock as the magma forms.

“The Lava Project furnace is designed to smelt rock, so we worked with the metals (mostly iron) that naturally occur in them,” Soldati says. you melt rock under the true conditions of the furnace, some of the iron splits and sinks to the bottom since it is heavier. By completely emptying the furnace, we were able to see how that metal magma behaved itself compared to the rock one. “

The metallic lava flows traveled 10 times faster and spread thinner than the rock flows, breaking into many braided channels. The metal would also travel substantially below the rock current, emerging from the advancing edge of the rocky lava.

The smooth, thin, braided, widely scattered layers of metallic lava would give a very different view of the planet’s surface than the thick, rough rocky streams we find on Earth, according to Soldati.

“While this is a pilot project, there are still some things we can say,” says Soldati. “If volcanoes on 16 Psyche – or on another metallic body – certainly did not look like the Mt. . Fuji with steep foothills, iconic earth volcano. Instead, they may have gentle slopes and wide cones. That’s how an iron volcano would have been built – thin streams that extend over longer distances. “

###

The work appears in Nature Communication. James Farrell, Bob Wysocki, and Jeff Karson from Syracuse University’s Syracuse Lava Project are coauthors of the work.

Note to Editors: A summary follows.

“Thinking and limiting ferrovolcanic eruptions and landscapes through large-scale experiments”

DOI: 10.1038 / s41467-021-21582-w

Authors: A. Soldati, North Carolina State University; JA Farrell, R. Wysocki, JA Karson, Syracuse University

Published: Nature Communication

Summary: Ferrovolcanism, still directly visible, is the most advanced and misunderstood manifestation of planetary volcanism. Major experiments conducted at the Syracuse Lava Project give us insight into the distribution dynamics of metabolic currents as well as coeval and silicate metabolic currents. Here, we find that, under the same environmental conditions, higher density / lower viscosity metallic lava moves ten times faster than lower density / lower viscosity silicate lava . The overall morphology of the silicate flow does not significantly affect the metallization of metallic flow. Instead, the metabolic current is largely separated from the silicate flow, appearing mainly in braided channels under the silicate flow and as a low-relief break from the silicate-flow front. Turbulent interactions at the metallic-silicate flow interface lead to a two-liter mixture, preserved as an erosional surface and sharp bonds. The results have a significant impact on the interpretation of ferrovolcanic landforms that may occur throughout our solar system.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! they are not responsible for the accuracy of press releases posted to EurekAlert! by sending institutions or for using any information through the EurekAlert system.

.Source