Powering Triton’s recent geological activity by obliquity tides: Implications for Pluto geology

• Published in: Icarus (New York, N.Y. 1962) N.Y. 1962), 2015, Vol.246, p.2-10
• Main Authors: Nimmo, F., Spencer, J.R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Deformation; Geology; Heating; Oceans; Pluto; Satellites, dynamics; Shells; Surface chemistry; Tides, solid body; Triton
• ISSN: 0019-1035; 1090-2643
• DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2014.01.044

•We argue that Triton is heated by obliquity tidal dissipation in a subsurface ocean.•This heating is sufficient to cause convective yielding and the observed young surface age.•Pluto does not experience significant tidal heating and is predicted to show no signs of recent resurfacing. We investigate the origins of Triton’s deformed and young surface. Assuming Triton was captured early in Solar System history, the bulk of the energy released during capture will have been lost, and cannot be responsible for its present-day activity. Radiogenic heating is sufficient to maintain a long-lived ocean beneath a conductive ice shell, but insufficient to cause convective deformation and yielding at the surface. However, Triton’s high inclination likely causes a significant (≈0.7°) obliquity, resulting in large heat fluxes due to tidal dissipation in any subsurface ocean. For a 300km thick ice shell, the estimated ocean heat production rate (≈0.3TW) is capable of producing surface yielding and mobile-lid convection. Requiring convection places an upper bound on the ice shell viscosity, while the requirement for yielding imposes a lower bound. Both bounds can be satisfied with an ocean temperature ≈240K for our nominal temperature-viscosity relationship, suggesting the presence of an antifreeze such as NH3. In our view, Triton’s geological activity is driven by obliquity tides, which arise because of its inclination. In contrast, Pluto is unlikely to be experiencing significant tidal heating. While Pluto may have experienced ancient tectonic deformation, we do not anticipate seeing the kind of young, deformed surfaces seen at Triton.