Europa Study Finds Deep Ocean Water Unlikely to Reach Surface as Cracks Freeze Shut Within Hours
Updated
Updated · ScienceDaily · Aug 1
Europa Study Finds Deep Ocean Water Unlikely to Reach Surface as Cracks Freeze Shut Within Hours
3 articles · Updated · ScienceDaily · Aug 1
Summary
New Rutgers simulations suggest Europa’s deep ocean water is unlikely to rise into shallow reservoirs because fractures in the ice shell would freeze closed before much water could reach the surface.
Turbulent flow is the key obstacle: as water swirls upward, it rapidly loses heat to the surrounding ice, becomes supercooled and forms frazil ice that can clog narrow cracks within hours.
That result means any shallow liquid water detected under Europa’s surface may have formed from local melting inside the ice shell rather than direct exchange with the global ocean below.
The distinction matters for habitability studies because shallow pockets would be easier to probe but may reveal little about Europa’s deeper ocean, the moon’s main target in the search for life.
NASA’s Europa Clipper, due at Jupiter in April 2030 for 49 Europa flybys, and ESA’s JUICE, arriving in July 2031, could test for such reservoirs and map the ice shell.