University Of Alaska Anchorage: Thesis Defense: 'Regional Scale Tectonic Features At Argadnel Regio And Agenor Linea, ...

Press release from the University of Alaska Anchorage:

July 7, 2021

Please join M.S. candidate in Applied Geological Sciences, Charlene Detelich, for
a public thesis defense via Zoom beginning at 11 a.m. July 12.

Description: Europa, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, has an anomalously young surface age (~90
million years old) and an extensively fractured surface. Conventional models for tectonic
features on Europa have invoked global-scale tidal forcings as the mechanisms responsible
for fracturing the icy shell. I examined a multitude of tectonic feature types, orientations,
and ages across a broad region of Europa's anti-jovian hemisphere and found fractures
that don't align with stresses from conventional global tidal stress models but instead
appear to represent distributed shearing potentially related to plate tectonics, which
would make Europa the only world in our solar system (besides Earth) with plate tectonics.

This press release was produced by the University of Alaska Anchorage. The views expressed here are the author’s own.