Gish Bar Patera

Gish Bar Patera is a patera, or a complex crater with scalloped edges, on Jupiter's moon Io. It is 106.3 by 115.0 kilometers and 9,600 km² in area. It is located at 16.2°N, 90.3°W. It is named after the Babylonian sun god Gish Bar. Its name was approved by the International Astronomical Union in 1997. [cite web
title=IO NOMENCLATURE | work=lnfm1.sai.msu.su
url=http://lnfm1.sai.msu.su/neb/rw/natsat/jup_sat/io/patera.htm
accessdate=October 20
accessyear=2007] [cite web
title=USGS Astro: Planetary Nomenclature: Feature Data Search Results | work=USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature Feature Information
url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/FeatureNameDetail.jsp?feature=62348
accessdate=October 20
accessyear=2007] It is located at the southern base of Gish Bar Mons, an 11,000 kilometer mountain. To the northeast is Skythia Mons, and to the east is Monan Mons, at the north and south ends of which are Monan Patera and Ah Peku Patera. ["NASA World Wind" 1.4. NASA Ames Research Center, 2007.]

The NASA spacecraft Galileo has detected volcanic activity in Gish Bar Patera's past, particularly in 1996, and a new eruption was detected by Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer in August 2001. [cite web
title=Recent Eruption at Gish Bar Patera on Io | work=pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu
url=http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/missions/Galileo/releases/6Dec2002_i32gishbar.html
accessdate=October 20
accessyear=2007] The western section of the patera is mostly green, with a few bright spots, while the eastern section is mostly orange. The active northwestern region of Gish Bar Patera has a mottled floor from several eruptions. The patera's flows may have a composition of silicates. [cite web
title=GISH BAR PATERA, IO: GEOLOGY AND VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, 1996-2001. | work=www.lpi.usra.edu
url=http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2003/pdf/1720.pdf
accessdate=October 20
accessyear=2007]

References