Abstract
The ice crust of Europa probably floats over a deep liquid-water ocean,
and has been continually resurfaced by tectonic and thermal processes
driven by tides. Tidal working causes rotational torque, surface
stress, internal heating, and orbital evolution. The stress patterns
expected on such a crust due to reorientation of the tidal bulge
by non-synchronous rotation and due to orbital eccentricity, which
introduces periodic ('diurnal') variations in the tide, are shown
as global maps. By taking into account the finite rate of crack propagation,
global maps are generated of cycloidal features and other distinctive
patterns, including the crack shapes characteristic of the wedges
region and its antipode on the sub-Jovian hemisphere. Theoretical
maps of tidal stress and cracking can be compared with observed tectonics,
with the possibility of reconstructing the rotational history of
the satellite.
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