[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-450265-105":59,"doc-detail-450265-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","little-to-no-active-faulting-likely-at-europas-seafloor-today","Little to no active faulting likely at Europa’s seafloor today","","Article examines whether active faulting can drive fluid flow and sustain chemical disequilibrium that could support chemoautotrophic life on Europa’s seafloor today. It characterises Europa’s seafloor stress state using tidal forcing, global contraction, mantle convection, and serpentinisation, then compares stresses to the expected frictional resistance of pre-existing fractures. Results indicate none can likely cause slip along even weak fractures, limiting reactions to fluid flow through the upper few hundred metres.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/little-to-no-active-faulting-likely-at-europas-seafloor-today/450265/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/little-to-no-active-faulting-likely-at-europas-seafloor-today/450265.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Riley","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-07","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the study trying to determine about Europa’s seafloor today?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study characterises Europa’s seafloor stress state to assess whether fracturing could occur and enable subseafloor fluid flow there today.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which mechanisms are evaluated as potential drivers of fault slip?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The analysis considers stresses from tidal forcing, global contraction, mantle convection, and serpentinisation.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What do the findings imply for water–rock reactions and habitability?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Ocean water–rock reactions are likely restricted to fluid flow through only the upper few hundred metres, so habitable conditions would need to be independent of ongoing tectonic activity.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},450265,1791039452,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":41},1374391975076,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000253ca4ec9f6853?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1783305029341752051","Article [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67151-3](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67151-3)  \nLittle to no active faulting likely at Europa’s seafloor today  \nReceived: 10 February 2025  \n\n| Accepted: 24 November 2025 |\n| --- |\n| |\n| Check for updates |\n\nPaul K. Byrne 1,2 , Henry G. Dawson1,2, Christian Klimczak 3,  \nPaul V. Regensburger 4, Kelsey T. Crane 5, Jeffrey G. Catalano 1,2, Catherine M. Elder 6, Bradford J. Foley 7, Christopher R. German 8, Austin P. Green9, Douglas J. Hemingway 10, Mohit Melwani Daswani 6, Mark P. Panning 6, Noah Randolph-Flagg11, Barbara Sherwood Lollar12, Philip Skemer 1,2, Steven D. Vance 6 & Douglas A. Wiens 1,2  \nMany of the outer Solar System’s icy satellites feature known or suspected subsurface oceans, at least some of which are likely situated atop rocky interiors. Water–rock interactions at and beneath these seafloors might support active chemoautotrophic habitats, with subseafloor fluid flow facilitated by active faulting and hydrothermal systems. Absent such phenomena, however, any attainment of chemical equilibrium between the seafloor and ocean might limit the availability of chemical energy for life. Here, we characterise the stress state of the seafloor of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and thus the prospect for fracturing and associated sub-seafloor fluid flow there. We consider stresses from tidal forcing, global contraction, mantle convection, and serpentinisation. We find that none of these mechanisms is likely able to drive slip along even weak, pre-existing fractures in the present. Ocean water–rock reactions taking place today are therefore probably restricted to fluid flow through only the upper few hundred metres of the seafloor. Any processes able to sustain habitable conditions at the Europan seafloor today must therefore be independent of ongoing tectonic activity.  \nOn Earth, fluid-filled fracture networks can support subsurface habitable environments1,2; on the ocean floors, tectonic activity drives fracturing that continually exposes fresh rock to seawater3–5, allowing for the production of redox couplesand the release of metabolites into the overlying water column6. Although the mechanical properties of the Europan seafloor are unknown, observations of the lithospheres of terrestrial planets imply that the brittle strength of Europa’s silicate  \ninterior is governed by the frictional properties ofweaknesses inherent to large rock volumes such as pre-existing fractures at multiple scalesand orientations. The magnitudes of stress will thus be limited at any given depth and pore fluid pressure by those fractures on which the resistance to frictional sliding is matched.  \nHere, we make a first-order characterisation of the stress state and level of geological activity of the seafloor of Europa, one of Jupiter’s  \n1Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. 2McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. 3Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. 4Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA. 5Seres Engineering & Services, LLC, Charleston, SC, USA. 6Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA. 7Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. 8Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA. 9Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. 10Institute for Geophysics, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. 11Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA. 12Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.  \ne-mail: [paul.byrne@wustl.edu](paul.byrne@wustl.edu)  \nlargest moons and a major astrobiology target (e.g., refs. 7,8). Combining rock mechanics with spa","cbCaijDy58dohRJ7","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijDy58dohRJ7","pdf",1408167,12,"English","# Results and discussion\n## Brittle strength of the rocky lithosphere","[{\"question\":\"What is the study trying to determine about Europa’s seafloor today?\",\"answer\":\"The study characterises Europa’s seafloor stress state to assess whether fracturing could occur and enable subseafloor fluid flow there today.\"},{\"question\":\"Which mechanisms are evaluated as potential drivers of fault slip?\",\"answer\":\"The analysis considers stresses from tidal forcing, global contraction, mantle convection, and serpentinisation.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the findings imply for water–rock reactions and habitability?\",\"answer\":\"Ocean water–rock reactions are likely restricted to fluid flow through only the upper few hundred metres, so habitable conditions would need to be independent of ongoing tectonic activity.\"}]","Little to no active faulting likely at Europa’s seafloor today | PDF",1790732665]