Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.0421t&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #04.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1074
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
Astypalaea Linea, a lineament in the extreme southern hemisphere of Europa, has been found to be a global-scale strike-slip fault, based on a palinspastic reconstruction of landscape on reprojected Voyager 2 images. The fault accommodates 35 km of right-lateral offset and extends at least 810 km - a length comparable to the San Andreas Fault in California. It exhibits familiar strike-slip features including braids and pull-aparts. Straight segments of the fault are concentric about an Euler pole provisionally located at (-48deg , 247.25deg W). Spanning over 29deg from (-60deg ,191deg W) to (-78.5deg , 268.5deg W) Astypalaea Linea is the longest strike-slip fault yet identified on Europa. The fault is consistent with differential stress magnitudes and stress directions predicted for high Europan latitudes due to possible non- synchronous rotation (tidal bulge in its present location) (Greenberg and Weidenschilling, 1984; Helfenstein and Parmentier, 1985). Extension on neighboring gray band Thynia Linea matches the same stress field (Pappalardo and Sullivan, 1996); thus, Astypalaea Linea and Thynia Linea may be part of a south polar deformation zone which acts as a "structural set" (Lucchitta and Soderblom, 1982). Analogous structures may exist at the Europan north pole, although factors such as a possible global structural dichotomy (Lucchitta and Soderblom, 1981) may affect their occurrence. Lateral crustal motion, as implied by the fault, is consistent with a subsurface viscous horizon structurally decoupling the outer layer of the icy Jovian satellite from its interior (e.g. Schenk and McKinnon, 1989).
Geissler Philip
Greenberg Richard
Tufts R.
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