Topographic variations in chaos on Europa: Implications for diapiric formation
نویسندگان
چکیده
منابع مشابه
Dynamics of Hydrothermal Plumes on Europa: Implications for Chaos Formation
Introduction The apparent existence of a substantial liquid water layer beneath Europa’s icy crust [1, 2, 3] affects the transfer of energy from the tidally-heated rocky interior to the surface ice layer. Better understanding of the characteristic length, time, and velocity scales of flow in the liquid water layer can improve our understanding of the processes that reshape Europa’s surface. Of ...
متن کاملHydrothermal Plume Dynamics on Europa: Implications for Chaos Formation
Hydrothermal plumes may be responsible for transmitting tidally-generated heat from Europa’s rocky interior through a liquid ocean to the base of its ice shell. This process has been implicated in the formation of chaos regions and lenticulae by melting or exciting convection in the ice layer. In contrast to earlier work, we argue that Europa’s ocean should be treated as an unstratified fluid. ...
متن کاملThermal and topographic tests of Europa chaos formation models from Galileo E15 observations
Stereo topography of an area near Tyre impact crater, Europa, reveals chaos regions characterised by marginal cliffs and domical topography, rising to 100–200 m above the background plains. The regions contain blocks which have both rotated and tilted. We tested two models of chaos formation: a hybrid diapir model, in which chaos topography is caused by thermal or compositional buoyancy, and bl...
متن کاملNon-Newtonian topographic relaxation on Europa
Models of topographic support on Europa by lateral shell thickness variations have previously assumed a Newtonian ice viscosity. Here I show that using a more realistic stress-dependent viscosity gives relaxation times which can be significantly different. Topography of wavelength 100 km cannot be supported by lateral shell thickness variations for ∼ 50 Myr, unless the shell thickness is < 10 k...
متن کاملImplications of shear heating and fracture zones for ridge formation on Europa
[1] We present 2D and 3D numerical simulations of convection to test the role of shear heating and fracture zones on Europan ridge formation. Our simulations show that a pre-existing fracture zone promotes upwelling and lithospheric thinning, leading to topographic uplift of 50 m. Shear heating also promotes lithospheric thinning and buoyant ascent, producing a ridge-like feature with topograph...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
ژورنال
عنوان ژورنال: Geophysical Research Letters
سال: 2004
ISSN: 0094-8276
DOI: 10.1029/2004gl019978