Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p23e0103t&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P23E-0103
Other
0560 Numerical Solutions (4255), 5220 Hydrothermal Systems And Weathering On Other Planets, 5418 Heat Flow, 6221 Europa
Scientific paper
Features on the surface of Europa may reflect non-uniform heating in an underlying ocean due to variations in mantle heat flux. Pore water convection can generate a spatially heterogeneous heat flux, as illustrated in two dimensional computer simulations of the thermal evolution of Europa. The Europan ocean and mantle are likely to contain significant amounts of salts, which may influence hydrothermal convection. Our model uses three layers: core, silicate mantle, and H2O. Processes active in the model include radiogenic heating, tidal dissipative heating (TDH), thermal diffusion, latent heat of melting, pore water convection and salt transport. Starting from a cold uniform body, radiogenic heating and TDH produce a temperature profile ranging from a peak near 1150 oC in the deep interior to 15 oC at the mantle surface, overlain by an 80 km deep ocean layer at 3 oC, capped by an ice shell approximately 20 km thick. This structure provides initial conditions for our pore water convection simulation. For no-salt conditions, an initial, very strong flow gives way to a weaker quasi-steady pattern of convection in the mantle's porosity. Plumes rise from the mantle at a roughly 10o spacing, through the ocean layer up to the base of the ice. These are typically 50 to 100 km wide at the base of the ice. Plume heat flux is 10-12 W/m2 during the initial transient, but later drops to about 1.0 W/m2. Heating at the base of the ice shell is spatially heterogeneous, but only strong enough to produce significant melt-through during the initial transient. The addition of salt produces an enduring time- dependent convective pattern, with episodic bursts of heat flux. This work was supported by a grant from the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory and by the NASA Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program.
Palguta Jennifer
Schubert Gerald
Travis Bryan J.
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