FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A possible ice volcano more than a half-mile high has been found on Saturn's moon Titan, U.S. researchers say.
Named Sotra and surrounded by giant sand dunes, it is thought to be the largest in a string of several volcanoes that once spewed slushy ice, liquid and gases from deep beneath the moon's surface, NewScientist.com reported Tuesday.
"Ice at outer solar system temperatures is very rigid," Randy Kirk, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., said.
"Ice at close to its melting point is soft. What would be a glacier on Earth would be a volcano on a body that's made of that same material. It's the difference between the cake and the frosting."
The researchers cannot be sure if Sotra is active, but called the discovery the best evidence yet far for a cryovolcano, or ice volcano, on Titan.
"The classical volcano everybody thinks of when you say the word is a mountain with a crater on it and lava flows coming out of it," Kirk said. "That's what we've found on Titan."
