Physics
Scientific paper
Oct 1989
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989icar...81..242o&link_type=abstract
Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 81, Oct. 1989, p. 242-270.
Physics
47
Europe, Land Ice, Polar Wandering (Geology), Surface Temperature, Thermodynamic Equilibrium, Earth Crust, Lithosphere, Spherical Harmonics, Synchronous Satellites, Jupiter, Satellites, Europa, Polar Wandering, Ice, Thickness, Inertia, Harmonics, Topography, Thermal Properties, Equilibrium, Models, Depth, Friction, Temperature, Viscosity, Fractures, Regolith, Timescale, Diagrams, Calculations, Rotation, Dynamics, Stability, Dissipation, Conductivity
Scientific paper
The present consideration of a hypothesized ice shell around Europa, which is decoupled from the silicate core by a liquid water layer and possesses a spatially varying thermal equilibrium thickness profile, proceeds through the development of equations for variations in the inertia tensor of a body when second-harmonic-degree topography is added to the crustal base. Attention is given to a realistic model in which the shell and ocean are assumed to undergo reorientations as a single entity independently of the core, but subject to viscous dissipation within the shell. Shell friction is in this case noted to preclude polar wander, unless a low conductivity regolith increases the near-surface temperature by a few tens of degrees C; the ice beneath the regolith would then behave viscously on the time-scale of polar wander.
Ojakangas G. W.
Stevenson Jacob D.
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