extensional” tectonic features tagged posts

Present-day Subsurface Ocean on Pluto?

The New Horizons spacecraft spied extensional faults on Pluto, a sign that the dwarf planet has undergone a global expansion possibly due to the slow freezing of a subsurface ocean. A new analysis by Brown University scientists bolsters that idea, and suggests that ocean is likely still there today. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

The New Horizons spacecraft spied extensional faults on Pluto, a sign that the dwarf planet has undergone a global expansion possibly due to the slow freezing of a subsurface ocean. A new analysis by Brown University scientists bolsters that idea, and suggests that ocean is likely still there today. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

When NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft buzzed by Pluto last year, it revealed tantalizing clues that the dwarf planet might have – or had at one time – a liquid ocean sloshing around under its icy crust. According to a new analysis led by a Brown University Ph.D. student, such an ocean likely still exists today.

The study, which used a thermal evolution model for Pluto updated with data from New Horizons, found that if Pluto’s ocean had frozen into oblivion millions or bil...

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Squeezing out Mountains, Mathematically, on Jupiter’s moon Io

A thrust fault rips to the surface of a numerical Io. As it breaches the surface, it pulls on the overhanging crustal block (to the left of the fault), and 'extensional' features such as trenches called graben form there. The fault also provides a conduit for rising magma and collapsing magma chambers form 'patera', or depressions on the surface. The stair-stepping is an artifact; the simulation divides the crust into small elements so that simpler (solvable) functions can be used to describe the rock mechanics. Credit: Bland and McKinnon

A thrust fault rips to the surface of a numerical Io. As it breaches the surface, it pulls on the overhanging crustal block (to the left of the fault), and ‘extensional’ features such as trenches called graben form there. The fault also provides a conduit for rising magma and collapsing magma chambers form ‘patera’, or depressions on the surface. The stair-stepping is an artifact; the simulation divides the crust into small elements so that simpler (solvable) functions can be used to describe the rock mechanics. Credit: Bland and McKinnon

Novel mountain-building mechanism on Io may also have operated on early Earth By Diana Lutz May 17, 2016. Mountains aren’t the first thing that hit you when you look at images of Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io...

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