What are the dominant controlling mechanisms on the surface geomorphology of icy satellites within our solar system? I am curious about the dominant large scale controls, for instance, the importance of orbital resonance, tidal, and gravitational constraints, as well as the dominant small scale controls such as temperature fluctuations, rafting, fracturing, and denudation. Can the surface topography, structures, and geomorphology seen on Europa and Enceladus be applied to a theoretical model of landscape and surface evolution of exoplanetary and exosatellite systems that we have yet to encounter?
If anyone could also guide to me published papers in this specified field that would be great. Thanks!
Dear Cole,
Because it seems to be hard to get real evidences on processes and rates on small satellites I would remember the principle of uniformitarianism. Everything observable on our systems, i.e. earth, should be happen on our small friends, too. So, glacial and periglacial systems on earth should be considered. As you can assume more or less equilibrium of gravity and centrifugal forces, I would focus on temperature changes resulting in different plastic deformation of the ice (of whatever compound it is composed of) and, thus, on flow velocity change when passing a heat source.
By the way, did you check Baker, V.R. (1993): Extraterrestrial geomorphology: science and philosophy of Earthlike planetary landscapes? I think, the community still is working on planets, because they are observable. Freie Universität Berlin did a lot work on the mars because they run a High Resolution Stereo Camera in the Orbit. Check the ResearchGate profile of e.g. Stephan van Gasselt.
Since, Marc-O.
Here's a link to an abstract from over 30 years ago where we talked about some observations of the grooved terrain on Ganymede. Unfortunately the image didn't show up on this version, but you may be able to find it in the LPSC abstract archives in your library.
http://goo.gl/t3myx2
Cole -- We covered a lot of the tectonic and tidal aspects of your question in the chapter titled "Tectonics of the outer planet satellites" in the book "Planetary Tectonics" a few years ago. Search for it on google scholar. It's a long read, but we tried to be very thorough and it would fill in a lot of the answers to your question. We don't address exoplanets/exomoons specifically in there, but there are several first principles of icy worlds and tidally driven tectonics.
Also I need to mention: the Fink and Fletcher abstract in the post above was one of the things that inspired me when I first got started in this field. A lot of work has been done on extensional instability on Ganymede since then, and it is an idea that has withstood the test of new data.
Thanks Geoffrey and Jonathan, such helpful responses. I am so interested in this field.
Found the .pdf of tectonics of the outer planet satellites! Thanks again.
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