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Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism
Europa’s ocean lies atop an interior made of metal and silicates. On the basis of gravity data from the Galileo mission, many argued that Europa’s interior, like Earth, is differentiated into a metallic core and a mantle composed of anhydrous silicates. Some studies further assumed that Europa diffe...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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American Association for the Advancement of Science
2023
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10275592/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37327336 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf3955 |
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author | Trinh, Kevin T. Bierson, Carver J. O’Rourke, Joseph G. |
author_facet | Trinh, Kevin T. Bierson, Carver J. O’Rourke, Joseph G. |
author_sort | Trinh, Kevin T. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Europa’s ocean lies atop an interior made of metal and silicates. On the basis of gravity data from the Galileo mission, many argued that Europa’s interior, like Earth, is differentiated into a metallic core and a mantle composed of anhydrous silicates. Some studies further assumed that Europa differentiated while (or soon after) it accreted, also like Earth. However, Europa probably formed at much colder temperatures, meaning that Europa plausibly ended accretion as a mixture containing water-ice and/or hydrated silicates. Here, we use numerical models to describe the thermal evolution of Europa’s interior assuming low initial temperatures (~200 to 300 kelvin). We find that silicate dehydration can produce Europa’s current ocean and icy shell. Rocks below the seafloor may remain cool and hydrated today. Europa’s metallic core, if it exists, may have formed billions of years after accretion. Ultimately, we expect the chemistry of Europa’s ocean to reflect protracted heating of the interior. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10275592 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102755922023-06-17 Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism Trinh, Kevin T. Bierson, Carver J. O’Rourke, Joseph G. Sci Adv Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences Europa’s ocean lies atop an interior made of metal and silicates. On the basis of gravity data from the Galileo mission, many argued that Europa’s interior, like Earth, is differentiated into a metallic core and a mantle composed of anhydrous silicates. Some studies further assumed that Europa differentiated while (or soon after) it accreted, also like Earth. However, Europa probably formed at much colder temperatures, meaning that Europa plausibly ended accretion as a mixture containing water-ice and/or hydrated silicates. Here, we use numerical models to describe the thermal evolution of Europa’s interior assuming low initial temperatures (~200 to 300 kelvin). We find that silicate dehydration can produce Europa’s current ocean and icy shell. Rocks below the seafloor may remain cool and hydrated today. Europa’s metallic core, if it exists, may have formed billions of years after accretion. Ultimately, we expect the chemistry of Europa’s ocean to reflect protracted heating of the interior. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2023-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10275592/ /pubmed/37327336 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf3955 Text en Copyright © 2023 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences Trinh, Kevin T. Bierson, Carver J. O’Rourke, Joseph G. Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
title | Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
title_full | Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
title_fullStr | Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
title_full_unstemmed | Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
title_short | Slow evolution of Europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
title_sort | slow evolution of europa’s interior: metamorphic ocean origin, delayed metallic core formation, and limited seafloor volcanism |
topic | Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10275592/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37327336 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adf3955 |
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