An Assessment of Topography Measurements on Europa

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Many small patches of chaotic terrain on Europa appear to be bulged upward, giving qualitative impressions that chaos might represent "cryovolcanic" and/or convective upwelling. The same bulged appearance is explained by the oceanic melt-through model, as simply the topography expected after refreezing and buoyant equilibrium. Greenberg et al. suggested an observational test to discriminate between these models, based on whether the up-bulged chaos is higher than the typical tectonic terrain in the region (for up-welling) or only higher than its immediate moat-like surroundings (melt-through and refreezing). Several authors have taken up this challenge, presenting topographic maps to refute the melt-through model by showing high elevations for chaos. However, details on the methods (based on combinations of stereo images and photoclinometry) have been sketchy, and without quantitative analyses of precision.
For example, near Tyre, topographic maps and profiles reportedly show elevated chaos areas. Yet the elevations differ between published results by much more than the purported 10m precision. Moreover, high-elevation portions of profiles that were labeled as chaos are actually tectonic terrain. Stereo actually shows that major chaos areas are lower than the tectonic terrain in the area. Also, variations in elevation within the tectonic terrain are so great that differences from chaotic terrain are in the noise. Moreover, our error-analyses for both stereo and photoclinometry indicate that uncertainties are greater than reported differences between elevations of chaotic and tectonic terrain. For example, stereo-based models may exaggerate the height of chaos by favoring rafts as tie features, and photoclinometry is sensitive to an uncertain photometric function and to sub-pixel slope variations.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of the melt-through model have been greatly exaggerated. Any results based on topography should not be accepted until the methods involved have been subjected to rigorous and transparent quantitative evaluation.

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