%0 Journal Article
%A Tejero López, Rosa
%A Ruiz Pérez, Javier
%T Possibility of convection for diffusion (Newtonian)Viscosity in the ice shell of Europa?
%D 2003
%@ 0167-9295
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/56778
%X Recent investigations into convection in Europa’s ice shell have been based on non-Newtonian (stress-dependent) or Newtonian (stress-independent) viscosity for water ice.However, despite the wide use of Newtonian convection, experimentally observed water iceflow is non-Newtonian, and analysis of stability against convection of the ice shell usingupdated flow laws has been only performed for non-Newtonian rheologies. Here we use theflow law proposed for diffusion creep to analyze the possibility of the onset of convection forNewtonian viscosity in relation to the thermal state of Europa. Our findings indicate that fordiffusion creep convection might have started, but that significantly lower heat flows (andequivalently higher shell thicknesses) and/or grain sizes are required than for superplastic flow,which is the most probable flow mechanism if the ice shell is convective.
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