Volcanoes and atmospheres; catastrophic influences on the planets

For a rare and brief instant in geologic time, we can imagine that the sulfurous, chromatic surface of Io (one of the satellites of Jupiter) lies quiet. Perhaps stars glisten brilliantly through the tenuous nigh sky. Here and there, thick icy fogs enshroud fumaroles where sulfur dioxide leaks from the underworld. Suddenly, a fissure splits the surface and billowing clouds of sulfurous gases and ice hurl orange and black ash into the atmosphere. Minute by minute, the intensity of the eruption builds; stars begin disappearing from the night sky. The rising plume inhales the nearby atmosphere, mixing it with the exhalations from the volcano. Particles of sulfur, sulfur dioxide snow and ash rise to 300 kilometers, later raining down across the planet a thousand kilometers away.