Comment on `Heating of Enceladus due to the dissipation of ocean tides' by R. Tyler

TL;DR

This paper clarifies that the dissipation mechanism proposed for Enceladus's heating is actually due to crustal viscoelastic dissipation, using standard static deformation models for plausible ocean thicknesses.

Contribution

It demonstrates that ocean potential energy dissipation is effectively caused by crustal viscoelastic dissipation, refining previous interpretations.

Findings

Crustal dissipation can explain Enceladus's heat output.

Standard static deformation models are sufficient for analysis.

Ocean potential energy dissipation is not the primary mechanism.

Abstract

Dissipation of ocean potential energy is proposed by Tyler (2020) as a new mechanism leading to possible high-power states for Enceladus. I show here that this process actually results from viscoelastic dissipation within the crust. For plausible values of Enceladus's ocean thickness, crustal dissipation can be computed with the standard approach of static deformations of solid layers by equilibrium tides.