TY - JOUR
T1 - A clathrate reservoir hypothesis for enceladus south polar plume
AU - Kieffer, Susan W.
AU - Lu, Xinli
AU - Bethke, Craig M.
AU - Spencer, John R.
AU - Marshak, Stephen
AU - Navrotsky, Alexandra
PY - 2006/12/15
Y1 - 2006/12/15
N2 - We hypothesize that active tectonic processes in the south polar terrain of Enceladus, the 500-kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, are creating fractures that cause degassing of a clathrate reservoir to produce the plume documented by the instruments on the Cassini spacecraft. Advection of gas and ice transports energy, supplied at depth as latent heat of clathrate decomposition, to shallower levels, where it reappears as latent heat of condensation of ice. The plume itself, which has a discharge rate comparable to Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, probably represents small leaks from this massive advective system.
AB - We hypothesize that active tectonic processes in the south polar terrain of Enceladus, the 500-kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, are creating fractures that cause degassing of a clathrate reservoir to produce the plume documented by the instruments on the Cassini spacecraft. Advection of gas and ice transports energy, supplied at depth as latent heat of clathrate decomposition, to shallower levels, where it reappears as latent heat of condensation of ice. The plume itself, which has a discharge rate comparable to Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, probably represents small leaks from this massive advective system.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.1133519
DO - 10.1126/science.1133519
M3 - Article
C2 - 17170301
AN - SCOPUS:33845712938
VL - 314
SP - 1764
EP - 1766
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 5806
ER -