Amirani (volcano)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/27ISAMRANI01.png/220px-27ISAMRANI01.png)
Amirani is an active volcano on Jupiter's moon Io, the inner-most of the Galilean Moons. It is located on Io's leading hemisphere at 24°28′N 114°41′W / 24.46°N 114.68°W.[1] The volcano is responsible for the largest active lava flow in the entire Solar System, with recent flows dwarfing those of even other volcanos on Io.[2]
The volcano was first observed in images acquired by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in March 1979.[3] Later that year, the International Astronomical Union named this feature after a Georgian fire god, Amirani.
Composition and physical attributes
Amirani is about the same age as
Eruptions
The recent lava flows observed by the Galileo appeared to have covered about 620 square kilometers of Io in less than five months, which was almost 6 times greater than Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea covered in the span of 21 years. This volcano takes on characteristics of a shield volcano on Earth, in which its eruptions create pahoehoe-like lava flows and produce massive amounts of lava consisting of mainly basaltic material and sulfur.[6] Its geological activity is created by the tidal forces brought on by Jupiter. Amirani's eruptions are controlled by the orbit which Io takes around Jupiter. The volcano erupts at temperatures of up to 1,650 degrees Celsius on to the surface of Io, which has an average temperature of negative 95 degrees Celsius.[7] Unlike volcanoes on Earth, Amirani can erupt for years at a time with constant lava flows pouring out onto Io's surface.
Origin of name
The volcano was named
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ "Amirani". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2014-06-27.
- ^ "Amirani's Big Lava Flow on Io - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Collection". Archived from the original on 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- S2CID 33147728.
- ISBN 978-0-521-85003-2.
- ^ "39th LPSC Main Page". www.lpi.usra.edu. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- .
- ^ "Io: Facts about Jupiter's Volcanic Moon". Space.com. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- ^ "Georgia: Past, Present, Future..." rustaveli.tripod.com. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
Further reading
- Williams, David A.; Keszthelyi, Laszlo P.; Crown, David A.; Jaeger, Windy L.; Schenk, Paul M. (January 2007). "Geologic mapping of the Amirani–Gish Bar region of Io: Implications for the global geologic mapping of Io" (PDF). Icarus. 186 (1): 204–217. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.08.023. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2014-08-07.