Fact Sheet
Big Eruption
The most massive volcanic eruption ever observed in the solar system took place 10 years ago on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter. The volcano was known as Pillan Patera. It is the dark, nearly circular patch just to the lower left of center in this image from the Galileo spacecraft, overlapping the bright orange ring around another volcano. Pillan Patera erupted for several weeks, and it may have belched volcanic ash over an area as big as Iowa. It disgorged enough lava every minute to fill the Empire State Building, and the lava eventually covered an area twice the size of Rhode Island. [NASA/JPL]
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