Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Planetary science

Tectonic overturn on Enceladus

Nature Geoscience volume 3, pages 75–76 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

The south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus is anomalously warm, geologically youthful and cryovolcanically active. Episodic convective overturn explains how the moon's modest sources of internal heat can be channelled into intense geological activity.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Global distribution and variety of terrains on Enceladus, obtained with the Cassini oribter's Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS).

References

  1. O'Neill, C. & Nimmo, F. Nature Geosci. 3, 88–91 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Porco, C. C. et al. Science 311, 1393–1401 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bland, M. et al. Icarus 192, 92–105 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Giese, B. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 53, L24204 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Helfenstein, P. et al. EOS Trans. AGU, Fall Meeting Suppl. 87, abstr. P22B-02 (2006).

  6. Spencer, J. R. et al. Science 311, 1401–1405 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Collins, G. C. & Goodman, J. C. Icarus 189, 72–82 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Nimmo, F. & Pappalardo, R. T. Nature 441, 614–616 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Tobie, G. et al. Icarus 196, 642–652 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mitri, G. & Showman, A. P. Icarus 195, 758–764 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paul Helfenstein is at the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, 320 Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-6801, USA. helfenst@astro.cornell.edu,

    Paul Helfenstein

Authors
  1. Paul Helfenstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Helfenstein, P. Tectonic overturn on Enceladus. Nature Geosci 3, 75–76 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo763

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo763

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing