Comparison between major volcanic events on Earth and Jupiter's moon Io

There have been only a few publications on direct comparisons between super-eruptions and their deposits both on Earth and on Jupiter's moon Io and there is also scarce information on the distribution and location of the volcanic structures that generate those deposits. In this work we show maps with the distribution and location of Earth's calderas and other volcanic centers and with the location of paterae and active centers on Io. Similarly we compare the areas of deposits from super-eruptions on Earth and their likely equivalents on Io. Another parameter we consider is the volume of deposits, some of which are well characterized on Earth because of field studies. On Io this is not the case in spite of knowledge on the areas and a minimum thickness of 10 μm detectable by sensors onboard spacecrafts. We also show a comparison between eruption column heights on Earth an Io, a parameter that appears to be related to the variability in area of deposits. The data on geographical distribution, volcano type and history of eruptions on Earth were compiled from sources that included the Smithsonian Institute's Global Volcanism Program and the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior-IAVCEI. For Io we queried several databases from National Aeronautics and Space Administration-NASA, the United States Geological Service-USGS and the International Astronomical Union-IAU, which contain detailed information on the history of eruptions as well as their nomenclature.