Formations on Jupiters moon Europa
xe...@webtv.net
Is the complicated surface seen on Europa the result of
faulting or is it the result of materials erupting from
below?If they are faults do the resemble any seen on earth.
What is the explanition for those double linear features
seen at all resolutions? If these features really are
faults how can there be so many overiding one another and
from many different directions?
Is it also possible that Europa has actually been frozen
solid since its formation but has only undergone a
relatively recent (in geologic time ) heating due to tidal
forces experienced during a shift in its orbit as has been
spectulated about Ganymede.
Thank you
pe...@nodrift.com
> . . . What is the explanition for those double linear features
> seen at all resolutions? If these features really are
> faults how can there be so many overiding one another and
> Thank you
As I have written on lines 8-11 of the HomePage blurb of my ebook at
www.nodrift.com :
"Saturn's moon Iapetus's equatorial double ridge is a . . . Europa's
cylindrical double ridges, bands and surface texture are explained."
As I have written on page 4 of paper 2.2 (in Volume 2, Europa and
Iapetus):
". . . Transition to double ridge production is triggered by subsequent
quiet-period ocean mixing.
1. Colder, saltier seawater ice bridges freeze harder and tougher than
"Soft Serve" mode ice bridges, resist being squashed.
2. Upper sides of these bridges exposed to a vacuum, are toughest, so
tidal convergence bends them upwards, where they break along their
centres. Both halves continue to curl upwards.
3. The effect is a "flowering" process: Petals projecting upwards,
4. Eventually backwards,
5. Downwards.
6. Successive tidal convergences continue the curling process while
thickening the stems.
7. New increments, half-bridges are successively shorter also, because
the tidal rift gap is closed by the thickening stems. In this mode,
tidal movement is increasingly restricted. No space to be grown into
has been opened up by impact, as in the "Soft Serve" mode
8. Tidal forces are fairly constant, so the thicker and shorter the
stems, the less they bend at each tide. The end result must therefore
tend to be spiral-shaped petals consistent with [cylindrical] "double
ridge" production.
How far spiralling continues probably depends mostly on time and
overall scale, which probably increases with cooling and increasing
thickness of crustal ice.
The cumulative process presumably continues until the bond between
the two stems becomes relatively deep and strong compared to the bond
of any regional successor, proto-tide crack.
A closed gap would generally continue to thicken. Subsequent impact
tectonogenesis may sufficiently warm the ocean to re-open this or other
gap, and produce a transition to band production, Fig 1."
Europa's surface texture is explained in paper 2.3 at www.nodrift.com
.