The distribution and characterization of strike-slip faults on Enceladus

Abstract

Strike-slip faulting is typically characterized by lateral offsets on icy satellites of the outer solar system. However, strike-slip faults on Enceladus lack these typical lateral offsets and instead are marked by the presence of tailcracks or en echelon cracks. These features are used here to develop the first near-global distribution of strike-slip faults on Enceladus. Strike-slip faults on Enceladus fall into three broad categories: tectonic terrain boundaries, reactivated linear features, and primary strike-slip faults. All three types of strike-slip faults are found predominantly, or within close proximity to, the antipodal cratered terrains on the Saturnian and anti-Saturnian hemispheres. Stress modeling suggests that strike-slip faulting on Enceladus is not controlled by nonsynchronous rotation, as on Europa, suggesting a fundamentally different process driving Enceladus's strike-slip faulting. The motion along strike-slip faults at tectonic terrain boundaries suggests large-scale northward migration of the ice shell on the leading hemisphere of Enceladus, occurring perpendicular to the opening direction of the tiger stripes in the south polar terrain.