Volcanoes and Cryovolcanoes

Hello everyone, this week's astronomy essay will be about volcanoes and cryovolcanoes, and how they are different. Well, the first difference is obvious: Volcanoes erupt lava and molten rock, as well as huge clouds of ash and debris.

Cryovolcanoes on the other hand, erupt when dissolved volatile gasses erupt from the surface of the planet as pressure drops while cryomagma ascends, like explosive volcanism on terrestrial planets. However, the most interesting part of cryovolcanoes is how and why they erupt. Let's look at. Enceladus, a moon who has a lot of cryovolcanic activity in its past.

Enceladus orbits Saturn, which has very powerful gravity. The gravity force pulls on Enceladus as it orbits, stretching and compressing it over and over again. These forces, combined with the tugging of other nearby moons, heat the core of Enceladus enough that some of the ices below the surface melt. These pockets of molten ices are a lot like magma on Earth. The molten material works its way up to the surface, where it eventually Erupts like a volcano. Some moons, like Jupiter’s moon Europa, experience so much tidal heating that scientists think there is an entire ocean of water hidden beneath the ice.

Thanks, you for reading another one of my astronomy essays!