Evidence and concerns about a latent, embryonic phase tectonic evolution and the existence of the young subsurface ocean on Mimas

TL;DR

This study presents the first geological map of Mimas, revealing tectonic features that may indicate a young subsurface ocean, but also raises questions about the recent activity and age of these features.

Contribution

The paper provides the first structural geological map of Mimas and discusses potential evidence for a young subsurface ocean based on tectonic features.

Findings

Identification of young tectonic features like lineaments, ridges, and troughs.

Overlap of tectonic features with tidal dissipation patterns suggesting a subsurface ocean.

Concerns about the recent formation of features due to crosscutting relations.

Abstract

New models challenge the long-standing conclusion about Mimas, an icy satellite of Saturn, being an inactive snowball, suggesting the existence of a young stealth ocean. Unfortunately, no observable evidence has been found yet implying tectonic activity and the theoretical subsurface ocean. Here, we present the first structural geological map of the icy satellite, with the signs of various tectonic features, along with a simple crosscutting chronology of lineaments formation. In accordance with the supposedly young age of the stealth ocean, the observed phenomena are described as putative lineaments, ridges, and troughs. Simple tectonic features are identified as young compared to complex structures. The pattern of the linear features seems to overlap with the allocation of various modeled global nonlinear tidal dissipation patterns. In such a way, it may provide the first observed evidence for the existence of the theoretical subsurface stealth ocean. However, the overlapping and crosscutting relation between craters and the observed features may raise concerns about the recent formation of such linear features, indicating possibly long-time dormant or already stopped tectonic processes at the early embryonic phase of lineament formation billions of years ago.