Plume Activity and Tidal Deformation on Enceladus Influenced by Faults and Variable Ice Shell Thickness

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F17%3A10367151" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/17:10367151 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2016.1629" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2016.1629</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2016.1629" target="_blank" >10.1089/ast.2016.1629</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Plume Activity and Tidal Deformation on Enceladus Influenced by Faults and Variable Ice Shell Thickness

Original language description

We investigated the effect of variations in ice shell thickness and of the tiger stripe fractures crossing Enceladus&apos; south polar terrain on the moon&apos;s tidal deformation by performing finite element calculations in three-dimensional geometry. The combination of thinning in the polar region and the presence of faults has a synergistic effect that leads to an increase of both the displacement and stress in the south polar terrain by an order of magnitude compared to that of the traditional model with a uniform shell thickness and without faults. Assuming a simplified conductive heat transfer and neglecting the heat sources below the ice shell, we computed the global heat budget of the ice shell. For the inelastic properties of the shell described by a Maxwell viscoelastic model, we show that unrealistically low average viscosity of the order of 1013 Pa s is necessary for preserving the volume of the ocean, suggesting the important role of the heat sources in the deep interior. Similarly, low viscosity is required to predict the observed delay of the plume activity, which hints at other delaying mechanisms than just the viscoelasticity of the ice shell. The presence of faults results in large spatial and temporal heterogeneity of geysering activity compared to the traditional models without faults. Our model contributes to understanding the physical mechanisms that control the fault activity, and it provides potentially useful information for future missions that will sample the plume for evidence of life. KeyWords: Enceladus-Tidal deformation-Faults-Variable ice shell thickness-Tidal heating- Plume activity and timing. Astrobiology 17, 941-954.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10500 - Earth and related environmental sciences

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Astrobiology

ISSN

1531-1074

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

17

Issue of the periodical within the volume

9

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

14

Pages from-to

941-954

UT code for WoS article

000410801300011

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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