P31C-2078
Two-phase convection in the high-pressure ice layer of the large icy moons: geodynamical implications

Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Klara Kalousova, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, Christophe Sotin, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, Gabriel Tobie, University of Nantes, Nantes, France, Gael Choblet, LPGN Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, Nantes Cedex 03, France and Olivier Grasset, UMR-CNRS 6112, Nantes, France
Abstract:
The H2O layers of large icy satellites such as Ganymede, Callisto, or Titan probably include a liquid water ocean sandwiched between the deep high-pressure ice layer and the outer ice I shell [1]. It has been recently suggested that the high-pressure ice layer could be decoupled from the silicate core by a salty liquid water layer [2]. However, it is not clear whether accumulation of liquids at the bottom of the high-pressure layer is possible due to positive buoyancy of water with respect to high-pressure ice. Numerical simulation of this two-phase (i.e. ice and water) problem is challenging, which explains why very few studies have self-consistently handled the presence and transport of liquids within the solid ice [e.g. 3]. While using a simplified description of water production and transport, it was recently showed in [4] that (i) a significant fraction of the high-pressure layer reaches the melting point and (ii) the melt generation and its extraction to the overlying ocean significantly influence the global thermal evolution and interior structure of the large icy moons.

Here, we treat the high-pressure ice layer as a compressible mixture of solid ice and liquid water [5]. Several aspects are investigated: (i) the effect of the water formation on the vigor of solid-state convection and its influence on the amount of heat that is transferred from the silicate mantle to the ocean; (ii) the fate of liquids within the upper thermal boundary layer – whether they freeze or reach the ocean; and (iii) the effect of salts and volatile compounds (potentially released from the rocky core) on the melting/freezing processes. Investigation of these aspects will allow us to address the thermo-chemical evolution of the internal ocean which is crucial to evaluate the astrobiological potential of large icy moons.

This work has been performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA.

[1] Hussmann et al. (2007), Treatise of Geophysics, 10.15, 509-539. [2] Vance et al. (2014), Planet. Space Sci., 96, 62-70. [3] Kalousova et al. (2014), J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 119(3), 532-549. [4] Tobie et al. (2014), AGU, P43C-3999. [5] Soucek et al. (2014), Geophys. Astro. Fluid, 108(6), 639-666.

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