Icy Jupiter moon Ganymede shows tectonic activity
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Ganymede alongside
Jupiter, image from NASA‘s Cassini spacecraft. (Credit:
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
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A recently published study led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) reveals Ganymede, an icy moon of Jupiter, appears to have undergone complex periods of geologic activity, specifically strike-slip tectonism, as is seen in Earth’s San Andreas fault. This is the first study to exhaustively consider the role of strike-slip tectonism in Ganymede’s geologic history.
Plate tectonics is the process on Earth that has created many familiar large-scale features—oceanic and continental crust, mountain ranges and mid-ocean ridges—and phenomena such as earthquakes.
Understanding more about the dynamic system of Jupiter’s ocean worlds allows scientists to prepare as much as possible for future missions to explore these extra-terrestrial bodies. Because of the increased interest in Europa and its potential ability to host life, a new flagship mission known as Clipper is scheduled to launch between 2022 and 2025, and will make 45 close-by orbits of Europa.
Peering into the past of Ganymede’s icy surface
“The heavily fractured surface of Ganymede displays many distinctive regions of inferred strike-slip faulting that may be important to the structural development of its surface,” said study lead author Marissa E. Cameron, who completed work as a doctoral candidate in SOEST‘s Department of Earth Sciences with Associate Professor Bridget Smith-Konter.
Both Ganymede and Europa, another of Jupiter’s moons, are believed to be ocean worlds, that is, they have a liquid water ocean lying beneath an ice shell. Europa is thought to be the most likely place in the solar system to find life today, presumably in the ocean where it may be protected from extreme radiation by the ice shell.
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NASA’s Voyager imagery
underlying Galileo high-resolution imagery. (Credit:
NASA, Cameron et al. 2018)
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Scientists know that Europa has tectonic processes similar to Earth’s. However, while Ganymede was once tectonically active, it is no longer—which offers researchers a chance to look into Europa’s future.
To better understand the role of strike-slip tectonism in shaping the complex icy surface of Ganymede, the research team performed extensive, methodical mapping of nine locations using imagery primarily collected by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter between 1995 and 2003.
From Ganymede to the search for life
“The unexpected finding was how commonplace strike-slip faulting was. Indicators of strike-slip were observed at all nine sites, representing various geographic locations on Ganymede,” said Cameron. “Additionally, the similarities between the sites may be indicative of a past, larger scale process. Incorporating our observations with previous studies provides an improved representation of Ganymede’s tectonic history and allows us to learn more about its neighbor, Europa.”
Cameron is currently employed at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an engineering applications software engineer for Europa Lander.
A global geologic map of Ganymede created by Cameron and co-authors is the cover shot of the upcoming issue of Icarus, in which the new study is published.
More information: Marissa E. Cameron et al, Morphological mapping of Ganymede: Investigating the role of strike-slip tectonics in the evolution of terrain types, Icarus (2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2018.06.024.
Journal of reference : Ícaro
Source: University of Hawaii at Manoa,
