Are there volcanoes on mercury

Categories: Research and Innovation The Abstract Tags: college of sciences faculty and staff mercury planetary geology research news. View Comments 0 total responses. Leave a Response Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. These lava flows would have been very different from both the dramatic eruptions on Earth, like the one that destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii, or the slow flow from the volcanoes of Hawaii.

Instead, they would have flooded the surrounding area like a swollen river, drowning an area 60 percent as large as the continental United States. The team believes that much of the evidence for where this lava came from has been buried in the sheer volume of the eruption.

The new evidence shows that volcanoes played a major role in shaping Mercury, and there was probably similar activity on other parts of the planet. You may want to check out the October 7, , Science Update Podcast to hear further information about this Science Update and the other programs for that week. See the Tool. See the Collection. Banks, James W. Head, Sean C. Widespread effusive volcanism on Mercury likely ended by about 3.

ScienceDaily, 5 August North Carolina State University. Most volcanic activity on Mercury stopped about 3. Retrieved November 12, from www. For decades, scientists argued that hit-and-run collisions blew away much of Mercury's rocky Like Earth, Mercury's outer core is composed of liquid metal, but there have only been hints that Mercury's innermost core is While effusive volcanism is still active on Earth, it stopped a few million years ago on Mars and a few hundred million years ago on Venus.

In the absence of any physical samples from Mercury, the researchers analyzed Messenger images, counting and measuring the size of surface craters on the planet. Based on their findings, the researchers used mathematical models to determine absolute ages for effusive volcanic deposits on Mercury.

As a result, Mercury began to contract, and the crust essentially sealed off any conduits by which magma could reach the surface.