Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p42b..01m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P42B-01
Mathematics
Logic
5418 Heat Flow, 5422 Ices, 5460 Physical Properties Of Materials, 6218 Jovian Satellites, 6224 Kuiper Belt Objects
Scientific paper
Without an explicit knowledge of water (and other) ice rheology, attempts to model, much less understand, the geological and geophysical evolution of ice-rock satellites, asteroids, and Kuiper belt objects would simply founder. Careful experimental programs have elucidated the rate laws and mechanisms for the creep of water ice under the stresses and temperatures appropriate to the outer solar system - and these rate laws have been broadly applied (examples will be discussed). But whether these rate laws apply to glacial ice on Earth is strongly questioned by some glaciologists. It is important to put this issue to rest in the literature and reach consensus. For example, the grain-size-sensitive (GSS) creep law proposed for ice should determine the spatial pattern and intensity of tidal heating within Europa's ice shell and within Enceladus. But if GSS creep is actually a modified form of dislocation creep, as the glaciologists above argue, then there is no dependence of tidal heating on grain size, and all efforts to constrain the latter are irrelevant. Rheologies for the higher polymorphs of water ice are also important for the larger icy bodies (Triton through Ganymede, certainly). Recent results have been reported for low-stress GSS creep of ice II. Convective transport in deeper ice is more likely controlled by warmer ice III, however, and despite experimental difficulty, similar knowledge for ice III would be of great value. Finally, the issue of porosity and porosity evolution, while often overlooked, won't go away. Porosity controls the thermal conductivity of icy layers (if not lithospheres on smaller bodies) but is subject to almost no observational or experimental evaluation. It can cause the rock/ice ratio of cold icy bodies to be underestimated. And it is surprisingly difficult to eliminate by pressure (crushing) alone. Rheological data on other ices exist as well, of course, but almost nothing is known about the properties and behavior of the organic fraction that must be important in Kuiper Belt objects, not even density.
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