Tidal control of jet eruptions on Enceladus as observed by Cassini ISS between 2005 and 2007

Hurford, T. A.; Helfenstein, P.; Spitale, J. N.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.06.022

Cited by 24 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…As noted earlier, for a 10-km thick crust, seawater will stand as a water table about one kilometer below the surface. It has been proposed that tidal stress is periodically opening fissures in the South Polar Terrain surface (Hurford et al, 2007(Hurford et al, , 2012. Hence we explore the possibility that fissures can be used to initiate circulation.…”

Section: Starting the Circulationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Enceladus: A hypothesis for bringing both heat and chemicals to the surface

Matson

Castillo‐Rogez

Davies

et al. 2012

Icarus

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Section: Starting the Circulationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Enceladus: A hypothesis for bringing both heat and chemicals to the surface

Matson

Castillo‐Rogez

Davies

et al. 2012

Icarus

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“…The solid curves show best-fits of the Weibull statistical distribution to the histograms (Table 15). The predicted role of tidal flexing of Enceladus in controlling geyser activity has been under investigation almost since the discovery of geyser activity on Enceladus (Porco et al 2006Hurford et al 2007Hurford et al , 2009Hurford et al , 2012Nimmo et al 2007Nimmo et al , 2014Hedman et al 2013). Recent Cassini findings that the intensity of plume activity correlates with Enceladus' orbital position (Hedman et al 2013;Nimmo et al 2014;Porco et al 2014) confirm that tidal stresses resolved along south polar tiger stripes modulate geyser activity by periodically opening and closing the tiger stripe fissures through which the geysers erupt.…”

Section: Influence Of Cross-cutting Fractures For Timing Of Geyser Ermentioning

confidence: 99%

Enceladus’ Geysers: Relation to Geological Features

Helfenstein

Porco

2015

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We apply histogram analysis, photogeological methods, and tidal stress modeling to Porco et al.ʼs survey of 101 Enceladus South Polar Basin geysers and their three-dimensional orientations to test if the jet azimuths are influenced by their placement relative to surface morphology and tectonic structures. Geysers emplaced along the three most active tiger stripe fractures (Damascus Sulcus, Baghdad Sulcus, and Cairo Sulcus) occur in local groupings with relatively uniform nearest-neighbor separation distances (∼5 km). Their placement may be controlled by uniformly spaced en echelon Riedel-type shear cracks originating from left-lateral strike-slip fault motion inferred to occur along tiger stripes. The spacing would imply a lithosphere thickness of ∼5 km in the vicinity of the tiger stripes. The orientations of tilted geyser jets are not randomly distributed; rather their azimuths correlate with the directions either of tiger stripes, cross-cutting fractures, or else fine-scale local tectonic fabrics. Diurnal tidal stress modeling suggests that periodic changes of plume activity are significantly affected by crosscutting fractures that open and close at different times than the tiger stripes that they intersect. We find evidence of sub-kilometer scale morphological modification of surface geological features surrounding geysers from sublimation-aided erosion, and ablation, and scouring. We propose that the simultaneous crushing and shearing action of periodic transpressional tidal stress on ice condensing on the inside walls of geyser conduits is the mechanism that extrudes the peculiar, paired narrow ridges known as "shark fins" that flank the medial tiger stripe fissures. We present a gallery of high-resolution image mosaics showing the placement of all the jets in their source region and consequently their geological context.

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“…Nimmo et al, 2007Nimmo et al, , 2014Smith-Konter and Pappalardo, 2008;Hurford et al, 2009Hurford et al, , 2012Porco et al, 2014). In comparison, lithospheric ice at typical temperatures on Enceladus has a brittle yield strength on the order of a few tens of kPa (c.f.…”

Section: Tectonic Disruption Of Lithospheric Icementioning

confidence: 99%