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Exploration of the Solar System has revealed that the surfaces of many icy bodies have been resurfaced by cryovolcanism: a process during which liquid and vapour are released from the surface into extremely cold and low pressure conditions. Water is one of the most commonly released liquids, and its stability and behavior under such conditions are thus of special interest. When exposed to low pressure, water boils, but it may also start freezing at the phase boundary due to evaporative cooling, as indicated by previous studies. There is only limited insight into how exactly the multiple phase transitions interact and what parameters control the dynamics of the system. To overcome this knowledge gap, we performed experiments in which we simulated the release of water at low pressure and low temperatures, such as could be encountered at local conditions at the surface of an icy moon.We used the Mars Simulation Chamber at The Open University (UK), in which a 60 x 40 cm container containing 5 and 17 litres of water was exposed to a reduced atmospheric pressure of ~4.5 mbar. Deionised water was mixed with a small amount of NaCl to achieve a salinity of 0.5% and was precooled to ~3.8°C to be close to the freezing point. Experiments were documented by video cameras situated around the container and the temperature inside the chamber and of the water was recorded by thermocouples.At the beginning of each experiment, the atmospheric pressure was gradually reduced from ambient, which triggered boiling within the entire volume of water and evaporative cooling in its uppermost layer. This caused a gradual drop in the water temperature down to the freezing point, forming pieces of floating ice. The area where ice was present slowly grew and within timescales of a few minutes the entire surface of the container was covered with ice. However, the ice layer was broken into blocks with uneven surfaces. This was due to active boiling below the freezing layer of the water, with the intense formation of vapour bubbles which were capable of breaking and/or uplifting the ice. Once the fracture(s) developed, trapped vapour was released and deflation followed. Experimental results show that the process was more intense when larger amounts of water were used within the container, which significantly disrupted the freezing of water in those experiments and affected the final topography of the ice layer.Our experiments show that water phase transition during effusive cryovolcanic eruptions are likely to be a highly complex process due to boiling causing major ice fracturing and the formation of topographical anomalies on the frozen surface.

Volcanism based on melting rocks (silicate volcanism) is long known on Earth and has also been found on Jupiter’s moon Io. Remnants of this type of volcanism have been identified also on other bodies in the solar system. Energy sources powered by accretion and the decay of radioactive isotopes seem to be dominant mainly inside larger bodies, which have enough volume to accumulate and retain this energy in significant amounts. On the other hand, the impact of tidal forces allows even tiny bodies to melt up and pass into the stage of cryovolcanism. The dependence of tidal heating on the size of the object is minor, but the masses of and the distances to accompanying bodies as well as the inner compositions of the heated body are central factors. Even though Io as an example of a body supporting silicate volcanism is striking, the physics of tidal forces might suggest a relatively high probability for cryovolcanism. This chapter aims at considering the parameters known and objects found so far in our solar system to give insights into where in our system and other planetary systems cryovolcanism might be expected.

This paper considers the occurrence, diversity, and special features of volcanic and degassing processes on Titan, as well as analyzing the maximum gas concentrations of volatiles in a vertical profile of its interior and atmosphere. We showed that the specific character of Titan volcanic and degassing processes is due to low temperatures, a peculiar material composition, and the ubiquitous presence of a subsurface liquid horizon. Consequently, the common (on Earth) forms of (cryo)volcanic activity are reduced, while the more common forms include (1) gas-lifting degassing, which produces numerous, small, depressions with a higher level of liquid, and which is a probable cause of “magic islands” in Ligeia Mare, as well as (2) limnological discharges of gaseous methane with subsequent intensive cloud formation, occurrence of methane storms, and large-volume precipitation. In turn, both gas-lifting degassing and limnological discharges of endogenous methane are due to the condensate–gas inversion at depths of 1–2 km in Titan’s interior. Below that depth, the endogenous fluids are nearly all gasless condensates, while above, these condensates start intensive boiling. We conclude that degassing is the most important relief-forming factor on Titan.

Geological activity on icy planets and planetoids includes cryovolcanism. Until recently, most research on terrestrial permafrost has been engineering-oriented, and many related phenomena have received too little attention. Although fast processes in the Earth’s cryosphere were known before, they have never been attributed to cryovolcanism. The discovery of a couple of tens of meters wide crater in the Yamal Peninsula aroused numerous hypotheses of its origin, including a meteorite impact or migration of deep gas as a result of global warming. However, the origin of the Yamal crater can be explained in terms of cryospheric processes. Thus, the Yamal crater appears to result from collapse of a large pingo, which formed within a thaw lake when it shoaled and dried out allowing a large talik (that is layer or body of unfrozen ground in a permafrost area) below it to freeze back. The pingo collapsed under cryogenic hydrostatic pressure built up in the closed system of the freezing talik. This happened before the freezing completed, when a core of wet ground remained unfrozen and stored a huge amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in pore water. This eventually reached gas-phase saturation, and the resulting overpressure came to exceed the lithospheric confining stress and the strength of the overlying ice. As the pingo exploded, the demarcation of the crater followed the cylindrical shape of the remnant talik core.