Jet activity on Enceladus linked to tidally driven strike-slip motion along tiger stripes

This research was supported by the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Program (80NSSC22K1318)(A.B., M.S.). We thank the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at the California Institute of Technology for organizing two workshops about ‘Next-Generation Planetary Geodesy’ which provided insight, expertise and discussions that inspired this research. We also thank M. Knepley, B. Aagaard and C. Williams for providing valuable advice on how to modify PyLith for our simulations. A portion of this research was supported by a Strategic Research and Technology Development task led by J. T. Keane and R. S. Park at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004)(J.T.K., R.S.P.).

Data used for Fig. 3 (slab densities derived from Cassini ISS images) is publicly available via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.06.006 (ref. ⁷). Data used for Fig. 4 (heat flow along the tiger stripe faults derived from Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer measurements) is publicly available via https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816537075-ch008 (ref. ⁴).

Extended Data Fig. 1 Similar to upper right and upper left panels of Fig. 2 of the main text except values (driving tractions) are evaluated for a model with slipping faults (μ = 0.4).

Extended Data Fig. 2 Example snapshots of mesh geometry.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Spin-up parameter Ξ(t) (see Equation (21)) modelled as a function of time (in units of tidal periods) for several prescribed values for the static coefficient of friction μ.

Supplementary Video

The results used in this study were generated using the software package PyLith^44,50. PyLith is an open-source finite-element code for modelling geodynamic processes and is available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3269486 (ref. ⁵⁰). The specific PyLith version used in this study was v2.2.2. The full code used to simulate deformation in this work (including modifications Pylith, CUBIT and PETSc and a user manual) are publicly available via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10585162 (ref. ⁵¹). The mesh geometries utilized in this study were created using CUBIT (v15.2), a node-locked licensed software, which is available through the developer Sandia National Laboratories via https://cubit.sandia.gov/2021/09/14/cubit-15-7-released-october-20-2020/ (ref. ⁴⁸).

The authors declare no competing interests.