'Tiger stripes' on Saturn's moon Enceladus could reveal if its oceans are habitable

This close-up view of Saturn's moon Enceladus looks toward the moon's terminator and shows a distinctive pattern of continuous, ridged, slightly curved and roughly parallel faults within the moon's southern polar latitudes. These surface features have been informally referred to by imaging scientists as"tiger stripes" due to their distinctly stripe-like appearance when viewed in false color.

The correlation between strike-slip activity and jet brightness in the simulation led the team to hypothesize that variations in jet activity are controlled by the presence of 'pull-aparts' along the faults. These are bent sections of the fractures that open under broad strike-slip motion, allowing water to rise from the"A close terrestrial analogy is motion along pull-apart basin structures over large strike-slip faults subject to tectonic stresses.

The Caltech researcher added that the team's models suggest that tides play a fundamental role in the evolution of Enceladus and its ocean on multiple timescales. "Understanding subsurface material transport pathways through pull-apart or broad rift zones is crucial for determining whether ice grains in Enceladus' jets are representative of the moon's potentially habitable global ocean. Our study provides a framework for understanding such transport pathways and their evolution over time," Berne said.

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