In a blow for fans of life on other planets, Jupiter’s moon Europa may not have the deep-sea tectonic activity required for life on the deep seafloor, according to international researchers.
Paul Byrne and colleagues conducted extensive modelling to assess potential tectonic activity in Europa’s theorised subsurface ocean. These predictions were benchmarked against known or proposed behaviour on Earth’s seafloor and Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus.
The authors considered stresses from tides, global contraction, mantle convection, and serpentinization, which is a geological process that occurs when rocks interact with water. However, they found that none of these processes are likely to be driving tectonic activity, even along pre-existing fractures on Europa’s seafloor at this time.
This finding would suggest that ocean water–rock interactions are likely contained to the topmost few hundred meters of the seafloor, limiting possibilities for habitable conditions on the seafloor..