Cryovolcanism

of the south pole of Triton taken by Voyager 2 in 1989. The dark spots are signs of cryovolcanic plumes.] Cryovolcanism is the formation of ice volcanoes in extremely low temperature environments. Rather than molten rock, these volcanoes erupt volatiles such as water, ammonia or methane compounds. Collectively referred to as cryomagma, these substances are usually liquids and form flumes, but can also be in vapour form. After eruption cryomagma condenses to a solid form when exposed to the very low surrounding temperature. Cryovulcanism is not known to exist on Earth. Ice volcanoes were first observed on Neptune's moon Triton during the Voyager 2 flyby. Indirect evidence of cryovolcanic activity has since been observed on several other icy moons of our solar system, including Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus and Titan. In particular, the Cassini-Huygens mission has increased the amount of evidence for cryovolcanism on Titan. It has also been hypothesised that the Kuiper belt object Quaoar exhibited cryovolcanism in the past.

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