Presentation Information
[O12-P23]Modeling Europa : What Ice and Salt Experiments Reveal - Clarifying the Formation Mechanism of Chaotic Terrains -
*Ito Tenka1 (1. Miyagi Prefecture Sendai Daisan High School)
Keywords:
Europa,Chaotic terrain,Ice crust
This study investigated the potential influence of salts on the formation of "chaotic terrain" on Jupiter's moon Europa by combining laboratory freezing experiments with quantitative image analysis. My results revealed that the presence of NaCl fundamentally alters ice crystallization, promoting a single-crystal structure rather than the polycrystalline structure observed in pure water or MgSO4 ice. I identified a distinct morphological transition at a concentration threshold near 10%: lower concentrations produced "irregular-type" ice characterized by stochastic linear fractures, while higher concentrations resulted in "regular-type" ice with geometric patterns. To bridge the scale gap between laboratory samples and planetary features, we employed fractal dimension analysis (Box-counting method). The analysis demonstrated that the irregular-type ice exhibits the highest statistical similarity to Europa's chaotic terrain. These findings suggest that the specific crystallization of saline liquids-coupled with subsequent tectonic activity-serves as a primary driver for the diverse surface morphologies on icy moons. This study provides a compelling chemical mechanism for the origin of complex geological structures on Europa.