Ocean stratification impedes particulate transport to the plumes of Enceladus
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Ames, Flynn
Ferreira, David
Czaja, Arnaud
Masters, Adam
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Water-vapour plumes erupting from Enceladus’ south pole provide a window into the properties of its subsurface ocean, a prime target in the search for life. However, the extent to which plume material represents conditions at Enceladus’ depths is unclear, because of its unknown ocean stratification, which may impede the transport of matter to the ocean top. Previous studies have found conflicting stratification regimes using differing parameter choices and model physics. Here, we build a comprehensive view of Enceladus’ ocean stratification and bottom-to-top transport timescale, across plausible ranges of salinity and tidally- and librationally-induced mixing, accounting for non-linearities in the equation of state for water, geothermal heating and ice-ocean freshwater exchanges. We use theoretical models verified with global ocean numerical simulations. We show that, under a steady state assumption for the ice shell, which requires melting at the poles, there is no parameter choice permitting an unstratified ocean from top to bottom there. As a result, potential hydrothermal products take at minimum 100s of years to reach the plumes. This suggests that either timescales of several months, inferred from Cassini observations, are incorrect, perhaps biased by alternative particulate transport mechanisms, or that Enceladus’ ice shell is not in a quasi-equilibrated state.
Date Issued
2025-02-06
Date Acceptance
2025-01-15
Citation
Communications Earth & Environment, 2025, 6
ISSN
2662-4435
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Communications Earth & Environment
Volume
6
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Geology
LONG-TERM STABILITY
SUBSURFACE OCEANS
CIRCULATION
DISSIPATION
LIBRATION
WATER
ATLANTIC
ENERGY
TIDES
IRON
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
63
Date Publish Online
2025-02-06