Research

My research interests are the geology, volcanology and the internal structure of the planets and the satellites of the Solar System. I already studied the nature of Io's volcanism at surface and lithospheric level, produced a geological map of the Prometheus Patera area, and estimated an average thermal gradient down to the upper mantle through numerical modeling based on Galileo data.

ENCELADUS

This amazing satellite of Saturn displays an unusual activity for a moon of its size. Many scientists believe that its endogenic activity is generated by the tidal interaction with Saturn although it is difficult to explain the absence of an analogous activity on Mimas, which is nearer to the main planet and has an orbit more eccentric than Enceladus. I'm estimating the various sources of internal heat to understand how they contribute to the global power output measured by the Cassini spacecraft.

IO

After many years of study of its lithosphere, I'm now looking how the mantle interacts with the asthenosphere to understand why there is no apparent plate tectonics on Io. Some authors have put forward the idea that Io may be in a transitional tectonic regime although have not explained in detail what this means for Io's lid. I think that the transitional regime of Io could be explained by some lid activity (not mobility) that results in the tilting of the mountains observed by the Galileo spacecraft.

MARS

I'm now studying the processes that generated the martian dichotomy. A giant impact centred in the southern subpolar highlands and able to generate a large magma ocean covering nearly two thirds of the martian surface may have occurred at the end of the planet’s accretion and core formation. The figure below shows Mars temperature 3D map immediately after the impact event. The figure is rotated 90 degrees clockwise. A preliminary 3D movie can be watched clicking the following file: gior10-320.mov

MOON

I'm applying a modified version of the martian code to simulate a giant impact that may have generated the lunar dichotomy. It looks like that the petrogenesis of the Mg-suite in the farside of the Moon is consistent with impact and recrystallization of a magma ocean. I'm evaluating the hypothesis that the farside highlands may have formed early in lunar history (between 4.46-4.1 Ga) immediately after the initial differentiation.