The microstructures and creep and attenuation behaviors of ice-iodine and ice/hydrate eutectic aggregates at planetary conditions.

摘要

The solidification behavior, microstructure and mechanical response of several two-phase aggregates of ice-I + salt hydrates were experimentally and theoretically studied; the binary systems explored were selected based on their potential application to the study of tectonics and heat flow on the Jovian moon Europa. Eutectic solidification of systems H2O-Na 2SO4, H2O-MgSO4, H2O-Na 2CO3, and H2O-H2SO4 was analyzed from a theromodynamic and kinetic perspective and the resulting microstructures by cryogenic scanning electron microscope. Classical eutectic microstructures---fine (mum)-scale intergrowths of ice and hydrate arranged in colonies---are formed in each system, the intergrowth morphology of which can be predicted from the volume fraction of the phase having the highest partial molar entropy of solution and from the magnitude of that entropy. The mechanical testing of ice-I and MgSO4·11H2O ("MS11"; chosen because it has been suggested as a better fit to the near-infrared spectral data of Europa) has shown that the microstructure of the eutectic---in particular the high volume of phase and colony boundaries---endows the aggregate with mechanical properties distinctly different from that of pure ice. In creep, the finely dispersed hydrate, which is distinctly stronger than ice, suppresses significantly the glide of dislocations; the result is a material both stronger and more brittle than pure ice. The eutectic rheology thus opens the possibility for semi-brittle flow in a two-phase, hydrate-ice planetary shell, affecting the tectonic responses. Attenuation in pure polycrystalline ice is effected by diffusional dissipation on low-angle (subgrain) boundaries augmented by non-linear losses wrought by glide of lattice dislocations. Grain boundaries can become significant in the attenuation response under dynamic conditions where a dislocation rheology dictates creep dynamics and the grain size is approximately equal to the subgrain size. In the absence of cracking in the hydrate phase, specifically at modest differential stresses (≤1 MPa) for the materials studied here (colony sizes ≤500 mum; hydrate ice lamellar spacing ≤20 mum), the attenuation response of ice-I/MS11 eutectic aggregates is little different than that of pure polycrystalline ice.