The cryovolcanoes of Titan

Cryovolcanism isn't exactly a term that trips off the tongue, but evidence collected by NASA's Cassini Saturn probe suggests it may be taking place on Saturn's moon, Titan, regarded by many astronomers as very similar to primordial Earth in terms of climate.

Cryolvolanoes work off the same processes as normal volcanoes but instead of molten rock, they ooze a sludge made of water ice, ammonia and methane. Some scientists speculate these flows of frozen lava could be 200m thick.

Recently though, a combination of Cassini's radar and the atmosphere itself has, potentially, led to a fascinating discovery. Scientists point to two areas where the brightness of the clouds increased dramatically as evidence of cryovolcanism. Cassini's radar even detected lobe-like features at those two locations, the expected shape of cryovolcanic flows. To cap it off, there appears to evidence of ammonia frost at one site, an element that most scientists did not expect to find on the surface of the world. It's presence is viewed by some as evidence that ammonia is being brought to the surface by cryovolcanism.

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