Prometheus (volcano)

[2] Prometheus consists of a 28-kilometer-wide (17 mi) volcanic pit named Prometheus Patera and a 100-kilometer-long (62 mi) compound lava flow, all surrounded by reddish sulfur and circular, bright sulfur dioxide (SO2) volcanic plume deposits.

[4] Later that year, the International Astronomical Union named this feature after a Greek fire god, Prometheus.

Between the Voyager encounters and the first observations by Galileo, a 6,700-square-kilometer (2,600 sq mi) flow field was emplaced.

The SO2-rich plume is generated as lava at the western end of the flow field covers sulfur dioxide frost, heating and vaporizing it.

[8] Prometheus' plume has been observed by both Voyager spacecraft, Galileo, and New Horizons, at every appropriate imaging opportunity.

Galileo color mosaic of the volcano Prometheus and its eruption plumes. Prometheus Patera is the kidney-shaped dark region at upper right; the magma source vent is situated in the narrow "neck" directly below it. From the latter, the western flow field stretches to the left, with most of the SO 2 plumes being erupted from the flow margins at the left end. [ 1 ]