Until late , Mercury was not believed to contain the fickle elements required for making wild volcanic explosions . New data from theMESSENGERspacecraft has shown that this was not always the case . Not only wasMercury rife with volcanic activityearly in the planet ’s account , but it lasted much longer than anyone would have expected . The research come from lead author Timothy Goudge from Brown University and was published in theJournal of Geophysical Research : satellite .
Earth is filled with chemicals like water and carbon dioxide which have comparatively low boiling points and facilitate volcanic explosions . As they get cycled through with lava and get close to the surface , they interchange from liquidity to gas pedal and expand , build up pressure . finally , the pressure just becomes too great , and the gasses and lava explode into an eruption .
Mercury , on the other hand , has not been thought to be as geologically exciting . When NASA ’s MESSENGER probe began refund info about Mercury in 2008 , scientist began to get the first clues of how dynamical the satellite really is , or at least how it was . Some of the first images from the spacecraft revealed ash that is characteristic of explosive volcanic plosion .
While it was then clear that Mercury had volcanic action at one detail , there was not yet enough information about the length of that bodily process . The ash could have accumulated over tenacious periods of volcanic activity , or there could have been a short - yet - feverish fourth dimension period in which the volatile elements stimulate these eruption on Mercury ’s open .
Goudge ’s squad focused on 51 sites that had this characteristic pyroclastic ash by analyze the images and datum collected from mass spectrometer . The squad noted that not all of the vent had receive the same level of erosion , indicating that this activity did not occur in a short , chaotic period . In fact , after using the erosion to calculate the years of the vents , some were only 3.5 - 1 billion years former . Because Mercury itself is 4.5 billion class erstwhile , this means that Mercury spent much of its beingness as a very volatile shoes with big amounts of the gases that cause those explosive eruptions .
Understanding the former volcanic activity could give clew to how the first satellite mould . Mercury ’s iron core is much larger than what would be expected for a planet of that size . This has extend some to think that Mercury used to be much larger than it is now . The loss of its sizing could have been due to a massive collision , or perhaps the vivid radiation from the Dominicus could have blown the outer layer off over clip . If this turn out to be the case , it would excuse why Mercury no longer has the volatiles that are necessary for volatile volcanic body process .
