The plains, irregular volcanic craters,
and flows on the surface of Io are
all related to the eruption of mostly
silicate magmas onto the surface of the
moon. Images of Io from Voyager and
Galileo also show high mountains,
some nearly twice the height of Mount
Everest, Earth’s tallest mountain.
Huge structures, some 65 km across,
show multiple calderas and other
complex structures telling of a long
history of repeated eruptions followed
by the collapse of partially emptied magma chambers.
Many of the chamber floors are very hot (Figure 11.8)