Magma ascent pathways associated with large mountains on Io

While Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, the largest mountains seen on Io are created by tectonic forces rather than volcanic construction. Pervasive compression, brought about by subsidence induced by sustained volcanic resurfacing and aided by thermal stress, creates the mountains, but at the same time inhibits magma ascent in vertical conduits (dikes). We superpose stress solutions for subsidence and thermal stress (from the 'crustal conveyor belt' resurfacing) in Io's lithosphere with stresses from Io mountain-sized loads (in a shallow spherical shell solution) in order to evaluate magma ascent pathways. We use stress orientation (least compressive stress horizontal) and stress gradient (compression decreasing upwards) criteria to identify ascent pathways through the lithosphere. For nominal 'conveyor belt' stress states, the ascent criteria are satisfied only in a narrow (5 km or so), roughly mid-lithosphere band. Superposed stresses from loading of a 150-km wide mountain (comparable to Boösaule Mons) on a lithosphere with thickness Te = 50 km results in a thickening of the ascent-favorable (AF) zone beneath the center of the edifice, with a total thickness of 38 km for an 18 km tall (post-flexure) edifice. Most of the thickening is upward, although some is downward. Widening the edifice to 200 km produces a 'U-shaped' AF zone, thin and depressed at r = 0 but intersecting the surface at distances of about 20 to 40 km from the center. Increasing edifice width increases the radial distance at which the AF zone intersects the surface. Thinner lithospheres create generally thinner AF zones, and U-shaped AF zones for narrower edifices. There are several configurations for which viable ascent paths transit nearly the entire lithosphere, arriving at the base of the mountain, where magma can be transported through thrust faults or perhaps thermally erode flank sections, the latter consistent with observations of paterae in close contact with mountains. The major remaining barrier to ascent in all these scenarios is the extreme value of compressive stress in the lower lithosphere. This will be relieved somewhat by the mountain-generating faulting. Further, the resurfacing cycle is thought to end at the bottom of the crust/lithosphere by remelting of crust, which would remove the stress trap there, facilitating magma access to the aforementioned pathways in the lithosphere above. This is likely to happen because the root of the mountain, protruding into the zone of melting in the asthenosphere, will experience enhanced heating.