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Stretching shaped Jupiter Moon's surface


Waspie_Dwarf

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Laboratory models suggest that stretching forces shaped Jupiter Moon's surface

San Antonio – July 8, 2014 – Processes that shaped the ridges and troughs on the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede are likely similar to tectonic processes seen on Earth, according to a team of researchers led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). To arrive at this conclusion, the team subjected physical models made of clay to stretching forces that simulate tectonic action. The results were published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Physical analog models simulate geologic structures in laboratory settings so that the developmental sequence of various phenomena can be studied as they occur. The team – including researchers from SwRI, Wheaton College, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NuStar Energy LP – created complex patterns of faults in their models, similar to the ridge and trough features seen in some regions of Ganymede. The models consisted of a “wet clay cake” material possessing brittle characteristics to simulate how the icy moon’s lithosphere, the outermost solid shell, responds to stresses by cracking.

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