Joule heating of the south polar terrain on Enceladus

Mobile lid convection beneath Enceladus’ south polar terrain

[1] Enceladus’ south polar region has a large heat flux, 55–110 mW m , that is spatially associated with cryovolcanic and tectonic activity. Tidal dissipation and vigorous convection in the underlying ice shell are possible sources of heat, however, prior predictions of the heat flux carried by stagnant lid convection range from Fconv 15 to 30 mW m , too low to explain the observed heat flux. T...

Establishing a Long-term Fracture History of the South Polar Terrain on Enceladus

Introduction: Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn and has a diameter of approximately 504 km. The icy moon synchronously orbits Saturn at a distance of approximately 238,000 km once every 33 hours between Mimas and Tethys [1] but is locked in a 1:2 resonance with Dione resulting in an orbital eccentricity of 0.0047 [2]. However, Enceladus is very different from other Saturnian moons, ...

Near-surface heating on Enceladus and the south polar thermal anomaly

[1] Strike-slip motion is predicted to be a consequence of diurnal tidal stresses in most satellites of the outer solar system. Such motion can lead to near-surface heating through friction or viscous dissipation. Here we discuss the effect of near-surface shear heating on convection in the underlying ice shells of icy satellites. We present models of convection in spherical shells including ti...

Old Tiger Stripes and the South Polar Dichotomy on Enceladus

Tidal heating in Enceladus

The heating in Enceladus in an equilibrium resonant configuration with other saturnian satellites can be estimated independently of the physical properties of Enceladus. We find that equilibrium tidal heating cannot account for the heat that is observed to be coming from Enceladus. Equilibrium heating in possible past resonances likewise cannot explain prior resurfacing events. © 2007 Elsevier ...