Dr. Kristie McLin joins the Stream-Flo of Consciousness podcast to discuss enhanced geothermal systems, Utah FORGE research, industry collaboration, and the future of geothermal technology.
Did you know… there is a geyser on one of Saturn’s moons?
And not just one, but over 100 huge water-vapor geysers occur at the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. They are believed to come from an ocean beneath the moon’s outer ice crust in which water comes to the surface through cracks in the ice that are called tiger stripes. Due to Enceladus’ tenuous atmosphere, the water vapor re-freezes and forms ice particles that fall back down to the moon’s surface, covering it in fresh ice that makes Enceladus the brightest object amongst all the planets.
More tantalizing is the scale of geysering. The plumes are the tallest known anywhere in the solar system, rising tens of kilometers above the surface of the moon. They are now known to be the source of Saturn’s E-ring, and the eruptions might be triggered by tidal forces. Remarkably, Enceladus is only about 500 km in diameter. The photographs from the Cassini mission from 2006 to 2017 have provided amazing insights about extraordinary geological activity on this small icy moon.
Sources
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/
https://www.space.com/32412-saturn-moon-enceladus-geysers-mystery-mechanism.html
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