Post

New paper alert! tl;dr: the seafloor of Europa is probably tectonically inert, meaning little to no active fracturing that could expose fresh rock to seawater. Without such water–rock reactions the prospect for there being life within Europa just took a big hit. A thread:

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

6 Jan

Our paper, "Little to no active faulting likely at Europa’s seafloor today", was just published today in Nature Communications! This version of the paper was submitted early last year and accepted in November, but the genesis of this paper started a VERY long time ago (relatively speaking) (2/n)

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

The original science question my co-author Christian and I asked was simply: What does the seafloor of Europa actually *look* like? This question came about because, although we can see Europa's icy exterior pretty well, we know virtually nothing of its interior. (3/n)

6/1/26, 6:05 pm0 reposts56 likes

Brakminster Fuller

@fikshun.bsky.social

6 Jan

Very cool. Can't wait to read the whole thing. It's surprising. I would have guessed Europa would be pretty active, given the orbital resonance between Jupiter, Io, and Ganymede.

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

6 Jan

So we ran calculations widely used for rocks on Earth to figure out how strong the ocean floor might be, remembering that most of Europa is rock! Why? Because fractures are a GREAT way of exposing fresh rock to the ocean, driving chemical reactions for life. No fractures? No fresh rock. (4/n)

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

6 Jan

We figured out how strong the ocean floor is, and how that strength increases as you go deeper into the body. The blue and magenta lines mark out the strength of the (sub)seafloor rocks if you wanted to make normal or thrust fault, respectively. Turns out these rocks are fairly strong. (5/n)

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

6 Jan

WAAAAIT A MINUTE I hear you say Water makes rock weak. And these rocks are *surely* saturated. You're right, they are! In fact, we *intentionally* consider rocks that are wet, have pores filled with water, and are in fact already fractured. We WANT fractures to slip and expose fresh rock! (6/n)

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

6 Jan

We then calculated what *stresses* these weak, fractured seafloor rocks could be subject to that would allow those fractures to move to expose fresh rock. Turns out tides don't do it. Interior cooling won't do it. And mantle convection won't do it. No plate tectonics within Europa! (7/n)

Bernd Andeweg

@berndandeweg.bsky.social

6 Jan

Why is the difference so small between tension and compression? 2/3*density*g*z vs 2*, I assume for Byerlees law

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

6 Jan

Read the methods! At the seafloor itself, rock strength comes only from cohesion. Otherwise it's pretty much Byerlee's law, but note the axes. The strengths diverge pretty quickly, even under a very low g. Moreover, we report both absolute and differential fault strength values.