Geology Club Seminar

Tidal forces are invoked as the primary driver of tectonism on rocky and icy satellites in the solar system, producing deformation features ranging from extensional bands to double ridges and strike-slip faults. These types of features can tell us a multitude about the physical and geodynamic properties of the bodies on which they form, however the details of their initiation and kinematic evolution are unconstrained. Bodies that experience tidal stresses large enough to overcome the yield strength of the crust are subject to cyclic rotation of the deformation sense, in compressive/tensile and sinistral/dextral modes. In this talk, I will present a scaled experimental analogue designed to investigate the kinematics of the horizontal (strike-slip) component of cyclic deformation and use the results to interpret structural features and physical properties of the icy shell on Europa. I will also discuss the implications and connections between tidal deformation and observed water plumes on Enceladus and Europa.