Physics
Scientific paper
May 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agusm.p33a..02s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2009, abstract #P33A-02
Physics
5422 Ices, 5475 Tectonics (8149), 5770 Tidal Forces, 6280 Saturnian Satellites, 8168 Stresses: General
Scientific paper
Straddling the south polar region of Enceladus, the four principal tiger stripe fractures are a likely source of tectonic activity and plume generation. Here we investigate tidally driven stress conditions at the tiger stripe fractures through a combined analysis of shear and normal diurnal tidal stresses. We compute Coulomb failure conditions to assess likely failure location, timing, and direction (right- vs. left-lateral slip) throughout the Enceladus orbital cycle and explore a suite of model parameters that inhibit or promote shear failure at the tiger stripes. We find that low coefficients of friction (μf = 0.1-0.2) and shallow fracture depths (2-4 km) permit shear failure along the tiger stripe faults, and that right- and/or left-lateral slip responses are possible. We integrate these conditions into a 3D time-dependent fault dislocation model to evaluate tectonic displacements and stress variations at depth during a tiger stripe orbital cycle. In this model, the sequence of stress accumulation and subsequent fault slip varies as a function of fault location and orientation, frictional coefficient, and fault depth. We estimate shear stress accumulation of ˜70 kPa prior to fault failure, which can generate strike-slip displacements on the order of ˜0.5 m in the horizontal direction and ˜5 mm in the vertical direction per slip event. Tectonic activity inferred from these analyses positively correlates with observed plume activity and temperature anomalies at the tiger stripes, however in detail some regions of our model do not strongly match the observations. In these regions, future work will tune the model, varying frictional and fault geometry parameters, to best simulate the available plume and temperature anomaly data.
Olgin John
Pappalardo Robert T.
Smith-Konter Bridget R.
No associations
LandOfFree
Tidally Driven Strike-Slip Fault Activity at Enceladus's Tiger Stripes does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Tidally Driven Strike-Slip Fault Activity at Enceladus's Tiger Stripes, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Tidally Driven Strike-Slip Fault Activity at Enceladus's Tiger Stripes will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1108187