Resurfacing history of Europa from pole-to-pole geological mapping

Abstract

We produced geologic maps from two regional mosaics of Galileo images across the leading and trailing hemispheres of Europa in order to investigate the temporal distribution of units in the visible geologic record. Five principal terrain types were identified (plains, bands, ridges, chaos, and crater materials), which are interpreted to result from (1) tectonic fracturing and lineament building, (2) cryovolcanic reworking of surface units, with possible emplacement of sub-surface materials, and (3) impact cratering. The geologic histories of both mapped areas are essentially similar and reflect some common trends: Tectonic resurfacing dominates the early geologic record with the formation of background plains by intricate superposition of lineaments, the opening of wide bands with infilling of inter-plate gaps, and the buildup of ridges and ridge complexes along prominent fractures in the ice. It also appears that lineaments are narrower and more widely spaced with time. The lack of impact craters overprinted by lineaments indicate that the degree of tectonic resurfacing decreased rapidly after ridged plains formation. In contrast, the degree of cryovolcanic resurfacing appears to increase with time, as chaos formation dominates the later parts of the geologic record. These trends, and the transition from tectonic- to cryovolcanic-dominated resurfacing could be attributed to the gradual thickening of Europa's cryosphere during the visible geologic history, that comprises the last 2% or 30–80 Myr of Europa's history: An originally thin, brittle ice shell could be pervasively fractured or melted through by tidal and endogenic processes; the degree of fracturing and plate displacements decreased with time in a thickening shell, and lineaments became narrower and more widely spaced; formation of chaos regions could have occurred where the thickness threshold for solid-state convection was exceeded, and can be aided by preferential tidal heating of more ductile ice. In a long-term context it is not clear at this point whether this inferred thickening trend would reflect a drastic change in the thermal evolution of the satellite, or cyclic or irregular episodes of tectonic and cryovolcanic activity.