No sulfur flows on Io

Abstract

Physical and chemical properties of elemental sulfur are incompatible with the suggestion that the colored flows associated with volcanoes on Io are quenched unstable allotropes of sulfur. Either the volcanic flows are not sulfur, or some mechanism other than quenching is required to produce colored forms of sulfur in them. The properties of sulfur are unsuited to the production and survival of colored unstable allotropes on Io. The color of this object is probably due to some other material, possibly iron compounds.