The Kiladze Crater on Pluto might be a supervolcano. The crater was discovered in 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft. Planetary scientist Dale Cruikshank and his colleagues have been studying the crater.
The crater’s existence raises questions about what’s happening inside Pluto to create the strange landscape. One explanation is that the craters are impact craters, but that doesn’t make much sense.
Pluto has a landscape sculpted by ice volcanoes. The landscape is of a type and scale seen nowhere else in the Solar System. The landscape probably formed within the last couple hundred million years, but it’s not sure if it’s still ongoing.
Kiladze (circled) is likely a super cryovolcano on Pluto. It contains fault structures and collapse pits that formed through cryovolcanism. The crater (or caldara) shape looks distorted, likely from internal stresses and tectonic shifting
Kiladze Crater is a crater on Pluto that’s about 50 km in diameter. It’s located at latitude 28.4° N and longitude 212.9°, northeast of Sputnik Planitia.
Kiladze Crater is structurally distinct from other areas on Pluto’s surface. It has a faulted structure with numerous collapse pits and a distorted shape. Planetary scientist Dale Cruikshank and colleagues have been studying the crater.
The crater superficially resembles an impact crater, but higher-resolution images indicate otherwise. It’s possible that Kiladze Crater is a “supervolcano
How many supervolcanoes are there on Earth?
While the exact number isn’t certain, there’s thought to be around 20 supervolcanoes on Earth. However, ‘supervolcano’ isn’t a scientific term.
What is the world’s biggest supervolcano?
The biggest supervolcano on Earth was discovered in 2013: the Tamu Massif, with a 4 km height and a 640 km width, a submarine shield volcano located in the Pacific Ocean, east of Japan
A crater is a bowl-shaped depression that forms at the top of a volcano. It’s made up of steep-sided walls of hardened lava that surround the main vent. Magma erupts from this depression.
Craters are usually found at the summit of volcanic edifices, but they can also form above satellite (flank) vents of composite and shield volcanoes.
Craters can be formed by:
- A volcano
- An explosion
- A meteorite impact
- Magma rising through water-saturated rocks, which causes a phreatic eruption
Some examples of volcanic craters include:
- Diamond Head Crater, Hawaii
- Koko Crater, Hawaii
- Kelimutu volcano, Indonesia
- Crater Lake (Okama), Japan
- Santa Ana, El Salvador
Not all volcanoes form craters
Interior Action Drives Cryovolcanism
The team suggests strongly that Kiladze is a super cryovolcano. Cryovolcanism is the process that sends ice “lava” to the surface of Pluto. We’ve seen it across the outer solar system, in some of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Like its “sister” form of volcanism here on Earth, some kind of heating melts mantle materials, which can eventually escape to the surface. We’re used to seeing rocky lavas. However, ice and water act as “lava”, too, if conditions are just right.
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