Plate Signed
Why don’t other planets and moons in our solar system show signs of plate tectonics?
Planets and moons in our solar system don't show past or present signs of plate tectonics. Why do you think so?
Mercury, as well as all the moons in our solar system with the exception of the four large moons of Jupiter and Titan, are too small to maintain a liquid core for any significant amount of time. If the core becomes solid, there can no longer be plate tectonics.
Mars does show hugely obvious signs of plate tectonics - the Valles Marineris is the most well known one, a split between two plates deeper than the Grand Canyon and longer than the distance between New York and LA. However, since Mars is also small, the core has also become solid somewhere between 2 and 3.5 billion years ago.
Venus does show signs of plate tectonics. There are two continental plates known, and at least four "oceanic" plates (although there is no liquid water, the oceanic plates can be recognized by being denser and deeper than the continental plates).
Io, the first moon of Jupiter, does show signs of plate tectonics. It is the single most active volcanic place in the solar system, with barely an hour going by without a volcanic eruption. This is due to tidal forces of Jupiter constantly grinding the insides of Io to melting point.
Europa, the second moon of Jupiter, might possibly have plate tectonics, but to a much lesser extent than Io. However, Europa is covered by an ice cap over a kilometer thick - we are unable to see beneath it to check.
Callisto and Ganymede, the third and fourth moons of Jupiter, and Titan, a moon of Saturn, are similar in size to the Earth, but do not show signs of ever having been active volcanically. This is probably because they formed more gradually from rings around Jupiter, and were therefore much cooler and never had the chance to be very active.
The outer planets' solid cores are all covered by at least 10,000 kilometers of gaseous and liquid hydrogen. Whether or not there is plate tectonics in their cores is unknown, although due to the pressure (and in case of Jupiter, deuterium fusion), they are probably either comparable to the Earth's core (solid, uniform, strongly magnetic) or they're so hot that they turned to plasma.
Earth has not cooled down due to it's size, and because of the tidal forces exerted by the moon.
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