Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf.1260w&link_type=abstract
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.1260
Physics
Scientific paper
Enceladus' South Polar Terrain (SPT) features the now-famous "tiger stripes", four parallel fractures whose existence has been attributed to active tectonics above an observed hotspot in the subsurface. The fractures themselves are source regions for the observed icy plume emanating from the region, and have previously been modeled as active cryovolcanic sources. It has been suggested that the tiger stripes are analogous to terrestrial mid-ocean ridge spreading centers, as have the double-ridge features on Europa. Unlike our own planet, where extensional tectonic features like mid-ocean ridge spreading, there is no clear surface evidence for subduction on Enceladus. Assuming significant mass is not somehow ejected into space, extension then requires that old "crust" is either shortened by compression at a point away from the spreading centers, as in collisional tectonic zones on Earth or redistributed vertically. In this study, we examine whether a semi-circular ring of mountainous features surrounding the SPT, which has previously been attributed as a convergent feature, can be explained through such a mechanism. Though the aesthetic similarity between the mountains fringing the SPT and terrestrial continental convergence zones is obvious; the physical limitations of such formation have not been addressed. Here we use appropriately modified ice sheet/shelf models to examine upper and lower bounds on the height of topography formation at the SPT, assuming continuous and/or episodic spreading.
Bassis Jeremy N.
Walker Christoph
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