paper

Vital Signs: Seismology of ocean worlds

arXiv:1610.10067

Abstract

Ice-covered ocean worlds possess diverse energy sources and associated mechanisms that are capable of driving significant seismic activity, but to date no measurements of their seismic activity have been obtained. Such investigations could probe their transport properties and radial structures, with possibilities for locating and characterizing trapped liquids that may host life and yielding critical constraints on redox fluxes, and thus on habitability. Modeling efforts have examined seismic sources from tectonic fracturing and impacts. Here, we describe other possible seismic sources, their associations with science questions constraining habitability, and the feasibility of implementing such investigations. We argue, by analogy with the Moon, that detectable seismic activity on tidally flexed ocean worlds should occur frequently. Their ices fracture more easily than rocks, and dissipate more tidal energy than the <1 GW of the Moon and Mars. Icy ocean worlds also should create less thermal noise for a due to their greater distance and consequently smaller diurnal temperature variations. They also lack substantial atmospheres (except in the case of Titan) that would create additional noise. Thus, seismic experiments could be less complex and less susceptible to noise than prior or planned planetary seismology investigations of the Moon or Mars.

arXiv comment53 pages, 3 tables, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Astrobiology, 11/7/16: corrected lunar seismic dissipation number and associated reference; corrected radiogenic heat for Enceladus; no change to main arguments of the paper, 11/10/16: added figures omitted from previous revision, 06/12/17: substantially revised version accepted by Astrobiology

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