By Xeno
Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is pockmarked by curious domes and depressions. How they formed has been a mystery, but now it seems they are areas where liquid water once appeared close to the surface.
Europa is thought to harbour a saltwater ocean, sandwiched between a 20-kilometre-thick layer of surface ice and a rocky core below. For clues as to what might be happening there, Britney Schmidt of the University of Texas, Austin, and colleagues looked at studies of subglacial volcanoes and ice shelves on Earth. They concluded that ice rising from the bottom of Europa’s surface layer created its 300-metre-high “chaos terrains”.
As Europa orbits Jupiter, it flexes as a result of slight variations in the gravitational tug of the giant planet. The energy that... More...
