Observatoire de Paris Institut national de recherche scientifique français Univerité Pierre et Marie Curie Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7

Explosive volcanism : Mercury, the Moon and Bepi-Colombo

lundi 18 novembre 2013, par Sebastien Besse (ESA/ESTEC,Noordwijk, The Netherlands )

Mardi 26 novembre 2013 à 11h00 , Lieu : Salle de confĂ©rence du bât. 17

Volcanism is a common processes in the Solar System whether it is ice or silicate based. In the inner Solar System, explosive and effusive volcanism are two common expressions of silicate based volcanism, including the Moon and Mercury. The goal of this presentation is to highlight how the latest observations from remote-sensing instruments in orbit around these two planets are changing our view of the origin, the occurrence and the mineralogical composition of explosive volcanism. For instance, explosive volcanism was not expected on Mercury’s surface and lunar explosive volcanism is showing a range of mineralogical composition much larger than previously thought. Since explosive volcanism is highly dependant on the volatile content, a better understanding is highly critical to constrain thermal, mineralogical and atmospheric evolution of a planet. Current and foreseen observations, especially with the suite of instruments on Bepi-Colombo, will certainly allow us to make very important observations to keep improving our understanding of volcanism in the Solar system.