Liquid water on cold exo-Earths via basal melting of ice sheets
Lujendra Ojha (),
Bryce Troncone,
Jacob Buffo,
Baptiste Journaux and
George McDonald
Additional contact information
Lujendra Ojha: Rutgers University
Bryce Troncone: Rutgers University
Jacob Buffo: Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College
Baptiste Journaux: University of Washington
George McDonald: University of Oregon
Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13
Abstract:
Abstract Liquid water is a critical component of habitability. However, the production and stability of surficial liquid water can be challenging on planets outside the Habitable Zone and devoid of adequate greenhouse warming. On such cold, icy exo-Earths, basal melting of regional/global ice sheets by geothermal heat provides an alternative means of forming liquid water. Here, we model the thermophysical evolution of ice sheets to ascertain the geophysical conditions that allow liquid water to be produced and maintained at temperatures above the pressure-controlled freezing point of water ice on exo-Earths. We show that even with a modest, Moon-like geothermal heat flow, subglacial oceans of liquid water can form at the base of and within the ice sheets on exo-Earths. Furthermore, subglacial oceans may persist on exo-Earths for a prolonged period due to the billion-year half-lives of heat-producing elements responsible for geothermal heat. These subglacial oceans, often in contact with the planet’s crust and shielded from the high energy radiation of their parent star by thick ice layers, may provide habitable conditions for an extended period.
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35187-4 Abstract (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35187-4
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35187-4
Access Statistics for this article
Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie
More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().