![]() The sequential reconstruction of Europa's surface in northern Falga Regio by Kattenhorn and Prockter ( 2014) raised the possibility of a full plate tectonic system operating on Europa. Analyses of plate‐like motions on Jupiter's moon Europa have provided insight into the formation and evolution of specific feature types and provided a means of testing processes and assumptions based on terrestrial plate tectonics (Schenk & McKinnon, 1989). Other terrestrial planets lack fully developed, present day plate tectonics, though Venus may demonstrate localized subduction‐like behavior (Davaille et al., 2017) and Mars may have experienced plate tectonic‐like behavior in its early history (e.g., Nimmo & Stevenson, 2000). ![]() Earth is the only planetary body known to operate under a plate tectonic system. The theory of plate tectonics describes how a planet's lithosphere is divided into a global network of multiple rigid blocks (plates) that move relative to each other, accommodating deformation primarily in narrow zones around the edges of the plates. Differences in observed strike‐slip sense and plate rotation directions between the northern and southern hemispheres raise the question of whether tidal forces may influence plate motions. Europa may represent a world perched on the theoretical boundary between stagnant and mobile lid convective behavior, or it may represent an additional example of the wide variations in possible planetary convective regimes. We conclude that plate tectonic‐like behavior on Europa occurs episodically, in limited regions, with less than 100 km of lateral motion accommodated along any particular boundary before plate motions cease. There is evidence that the plate motions did not all happen at the same time, and that they are not happening today. Not all of the surveyed surface could be described by systems of rigid plates. Several motions observed along single plate boundaries were also noted in previous works, but this work links together isolated observations of lateral offsets into integrated systems of moving plates. All three areas were reconstructed to reveal the original pre‐plate motion surfaces by performing multi‐stage rotations of plates in spherical coordinates. Three areas showing plate‐like behavior were examined in detail to determine the sequence of events that deformed the surface. ( 2022).Ī nearly pole‐to‐pole survey near 140☎ longitude on Europa revealed many areas that exhibit past lateral surface motions, and these areas were examined to determine whether the motions can be described by systems of rigid plates moving across Europa's surface. Mac and Windows installers of GPlates version 2.3, current as of the date of submission of this manuscript and known to work with the archived data files, are included in this article's JHU‐APL data repository in case of future incompatibility Collins et al. For future compatibility purposes, the GPlates project plans to make older versions of GPlates available on EarthByte at. The software may be downloaded from the GPlates website at or from the project's GitHub page at. ![]() GPlates software (Müller et al., 2018) is an open source project located at. All of the data files and the ISIS‐formatted base mosaic can be downloaded from the JHU‐APL data repository for this article at Collins et al. ( 2022). The Supporting Information S1 for this article contains descriptions and links to all of the GPlates data files used in the reconstructions.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |