Lava Lakes on Io: crust age and implications for thermal output

TL;DR

This study analyzes Io's lava lakes' thermal properties, revealing that their crusts contribute most to heat output and suggesting that previous estimates significantly underestimated Io's volcanic heat flux.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on lava lake structure and energy budget, highlighting the importance of crustal heat and proposing improved methods for assessing Io's global thermal output.

Findings

Most power comes from crusts, not peripheral rings

Lava lakes undergo stochastic resurfacing roughly every decade

Full-surface, high-resolution observations are needed for accurate heat flux estimates

Abstract

Recent observations by the JIRAM instrument onboard NASA's Juno mission have confirmed that many of Io's volcanic hot spots are active lava lakes, characterized by a colder central crust surrounded by a hotter peripheral ring. In this study, we investigate the thermal properties of thirty such lava lakes, providing new constraints on their structure and energy budget. We find that most of the total power from Io's lava lakes comes from their low-temperature crusts rather than the hotter peripheral rings, suggesting previous estimates underestimated lava lake power by up to a factor of 10. Io's paterae undergo stochastic resurfacing on timescales of roughly a decade, with each lake possibly following its own characteristic cycle. We also explore the relationship between the average temperature of the crust and the evolutionary state of each lake, offering insights into the frequency of resurfacing processes. Finally, we propose an improved assessment of Io's global thermal output, emphasizing that only full-surface observation of Io with sufficient spatial and spectral resolution can yield realistic values for the moon's volcanic total heat flux.