Lava Flows on Io: Modelling Cooling After Solidification

We have modeled the cooling of lava bodies on Io after solidification of the lava, a process that has been little explored since Carr (1986). With recent estimates of lava flow thicknesses on Io ranging from 1 m to 10 m, the modeling of thermal emission from active volcanism must take into account the cooling behaviour after the solidification of the lava, which we model using a finite-element model. Once a lava body is fully solidified, the surface temperature decreases faster, as heat loss is no longer buffered by release of latent heat. This is significant as observed surface temperature is often the only clue available to determine lava surface age. We also find that cooling from the base of the lava is an important process that accelerates the solidification of a flow and therefore subsequent cooling. It is necessary to constrain the cooling process in order to better understand temperature-area relationships on Io's surface and to carry out stochastic modelling of lava flow emplacement.