Abstract
A novel heat balance is proposed for Io's mantle in which heat produced by tidal dissipation is brought to the surface by rapid ascent of magma, rather than by convection. This is essentially a heat pipe mode of heat transport, with magma going up (taking latent heat) and solid mantle going down. Assuming latent heat dominates the heat transport, a simplified energy equation is coupled to the mass conservation equations and a Darcy flow law, resulting in two coupled, first-order equations for the melt velocity and melt fraction as functions of depth in the mantle. Tidal heating is modeled by uniformly distributing the observed surface heat flow of 2×10 14 W over the partially molten region. Melt fractions less than 20% are required to remove this heat from the mantle via melt segregation.
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