Physics
Scientific paper
Mar 2003
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003georl..30e..37n&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 30, Issue 5, pp. 37-1, CiteID 1233, DOI 10.1029/2002GL016660
Physics
25
Planetology: Solar System Objects: Jovian Satellites, Planetary Sciences: Heat Flow, Planetary Sciences: Tectonics (8149), Tectonophysics: Dynamics, Gravity And Tectonics, Tectonophysics: Rheology-General
Scientific paper
The thickness of Europa's solid ice shell is uncertain, and has important implications for Europa's habitability and thermal history, and the design of future spacecraft missions. Here we obtain an estimate of the ice shell thickness from observations of a plateau SW of Cilix impact crater. Stereo topographic profiles suggest that the plateau is flexurally supported, with an effective elastic thickness te of 6-2+5 km. For a conductive temperature profile this te value implies a solid ice shell thickness of 15-9+20 km; if the shell is convecting, this estimate is a lower bound. Combined with independent estimates, we infer a probable shell thickness of ~25 km. The shell thickness is likely to be uniform over the entire satellite.
Giese Bernd
Nimmo Francis
Pappalardo Robert T.
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