Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p22b..03s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P22B-03
Other
5430 Interiors (8147), 5455 Origin And Evolution, 6280 Saturnian Satellites
Scientific paper
Tidal heating is surely central to understanding the remarkable observations of Enceladus (Porco et al, 2006; Spencer et al, 2006) because: (a) It can set this body apart from others of similar or larger radius and composition; (b) It can break symmetry more strongly than mere thermal convection; (c) It introduces a complex temporal aspect to the response ;(d) It allows for the possibility of a non-monotonic history on longer timescales. In a "global" (and inadequate) view of tidal heating, the imaginary part of the Love number for Enceladus can vary by as much a six orders of magnitude depending on assumptions made, but localized heating may matter more (cf. the great Bolivian earthquake; Kanamori et al Science Vol. 279. 839 842 , 1998; or a model of tidal heating that involves lubricated blocks). The North-South asymmetry is not then puzzling. A full understanding also requires consideration of radiogenic heating (to "prime the pump") and composition. Ammonia may be good for getting things started (because it allows onset of melting) but might be irrelevant or even undesirable for how venting works now; carbon dioxide (or some other relatively insoluble component) may be irrelevant at first but important now. The tidal heating and energy budget does necessarily implicate the silicate component (except in the context of particular choices of ice rheology; something that we clearly do not know well enough). Any ongoing role of the silicates may perhaps be the chemistry question: Is there anything in the composition of expelled material that demands present day temperatures well in excess of the melting point of water? This talk may not answer the questions (especially the title!), but it may provide a framework for assessing the merits of different alternatives.
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