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Project Progress

The principal activities in this report period include:

1. Completion of a study of "The mitten" feature on Europa. This feature is considered to represent extrusion of material onto the surface from beneath Europa’s icy crust. As such, it could be a high priority target for future exploration and the search for past or present organic evolution. The results are currently in press in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

2. Pole-to-pole geological mapping has been completed for a strip of the leading and the trailing hemispheres of Europa in order to determine potential latitudinal or hemispheric asymmetries. This work was done as part of a PhD project and is currently being submitted for publication.

3. A study of ice deformation in one region of Europa was conducted to assess the potential for crustal fore-shortening. Positive evidence was found, and the results are currently in press in Geophysical Research Letters.

These three activities help characterize the current nature and evolution of Europa’s surface-near-surface environments and their potential as habitable zones.

4. Although the Europa Focus Group is funded separately, scientific guidance and organization are provided by Greeley though this module.