Tidally driven strike–slip displacement on Europa: Viscoelastic modeling |
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| Institution: | 1. Laboratoire Planétologie Géodynamique de Nantes, CNRS/INSU, Univ. Nantes, 44322 Nantes, France;2. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, PO Box 400123, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4123, USA;1. Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany;2. Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, UMR 5277 du CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, 31400 Toulouse, France;1. Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, United States;2. Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources and the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, United States |
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| Abstract: | The process of tide-driven walking, proposed as a major mechanism for strike–slip displacement on Europa, is modeled using a finite-element numerical simulation of the behavior of viscoelastic material. For material parameters that are plausible for the water ice composing Europa's crust, the simulation confirms earlier analytic results for strike–slip displacement along a crack that penetrates down to the liquid water substrate. The finite element code permits testing other cases as well. Of considerable interest is whether tidal walking can operate if a crack penetrates not to liquid but only as far as warm, relatively viscous ice. In such a case, significant displacement can be driven, but only if the threshold value of the compressive force needed to lock the fault is near the value of the overburden stress at the bottom of the crack. Such special conditions are not needed for displacement if the crack penetrates to the underlying ocean. |
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