Europa's ocean translates interior tidal heating patterns to the ice-ocean boundary
Abstract
The circulation in Europa's ocean determines the degree of thermal, mechanical and chemical coupling between the ice shell and the silicate mantle. Using global direct numerical simulations, we investigate the effect of heterogeneous tidal heating in the silicate mantle on rotating thermal convection in the ocean and its consequences on ice shell thickness. Under the assumption of no salinity or ocean-ice shell feedbacks, we show that convection largely transposes the latitudinal variations of tidal heating from the seafloor to the ice, leading to a higher oceanic heat flux in polar regions. Longitudinal variations are efficiently transferred when boundary-driven thermal winds develop, but are reduced in the presence of strong zonal flows and may vanish in planetary regimes. If spatially homogeneous radiogenic heating is dominant in the silicate mantle, the ocean's contribution to ice shell thickness variations is negligible compared to tidal heating within the ice. If tidal heating is instead dominant in the mantle, the situation is reversed and the ocean controls the pole-to-equator thickness contrast, as well as possible longitudinal variations.
Citation
Lemasquerier , D , Bierson , C & Soderlund , K 2023 , ' Europa's ocean translates interior tidal heating patterns to the ice-ocean boundary ' , AGU Advances , vol. 4 , no. 6 , e2023AV000994 . https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2311.11718 , https://doi.org/10.1029/2023av000994
Publication
AGU Advances
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2576-604XType
Journal article
Description
The authors thank the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics and Jackson School of Geosciences for funding.Collections
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