Computer Science
Scientific paper
Oct 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996icar..123..557p&link_type=abstract
Icarus, Volume 123, Issue 2, pp. 557-567.
Computer Science
46
Scientific paper
Thynia Linea, a gray band on Europa, is found to be a ~25 km wide and >900 km long region of lithospheric separation which has been infilled by relatively dark material. Roughly a dozen older features and the cuspate segments that form its outline appear to have been displaced across its width. Displacement azimuths indicate a best fit pole of opening near 79 degS, 200 degW. However, displacement magnitude decreases toward either end of the gray band, indicating that it is more akin to a ``tear'' in a nonrigid europan lithosphere. Opening was in response to NW-SE directed tensile stress, in accord with the stress predictions of nonsynchronous rotation. Observations of Thynia Linea are consistent with a laterally mobile brittle lithosphere, decoupled from ductile or liquid material below, as previously suggested to account for opening of wedge-shaped bands in Europa's antijovian region. Lithospheric separation and contemporaneous emplacement of new material offers a possible volcano-tectonic scenario for resurfacing Europa. If this process is ongoing, resurfacing can be accomplished on a time scale consistent with the satellite's surface age if one gray band or zone of wedge-shaped bands forms every ~10^3-10^4 yr and becomes unrecognizable with age. This would imply that features on Europa brighten with age, as through continuous deposition of frost onto the surface.
Pappalardo Robert T.
Sullivan Robert John Jr.
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