Europa’s Ocean Floor is Surprisingly Calm, New Modeling Study Suggests
A new analysis of stresses, tides and interior forces suggests that Jupiter’s icy moon Europa lacks the active seafloor faults necessary for robust hydrothermal circulation, which has implications for chemical energy and habitability.
The surface of Europa occupies an important place in this recently reprocessed color view; the image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; northern Europe is on the right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.
On Earth, we know that tectonic activity plays a role in maintaining vital habitats.
This occurs through water-rock interactions at and below the seafloor, which can provide chemical energy for potential life.
Thus, the presence of tectonic activity on a planet may be one of many signs indicating an environment that may be equipped to support life.
One of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, is thought to harbor a subterranean ocean beneath its icy surface.
Previous research has suggested that there may be volcanic activity on Europa’s seafloor, but whether tectonic activity is possible has not been studied before.
“If we could explore this ocean with a remotely operated submarine, we wouldn’t see new fractures, active volcanoes or plumes of hot water on the seafloor,” said Dr. Paul Byrne, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.
“Geologically, there’s not much going on there. Everything would be quiet.”
“And on an icy world like Europa, a calm seabed could well mean a lifeless ocean.”
Dr Byrne and colleagues conducted extensive modeling to assess potential tectonic activity in Europa’s theorized subsurface ocean.
These predictions were compared to known or proposed behavior on the Earth’s seafloor and on Enceladus.
The researchers considered constraints from tides, global contraction, mantle convection and serpentinization – a geological process that occurs when rocks interact with water.
However, they found that none of these processes are likely to generate tectonic activity, even along pre-existing fractures on the seafloor of Europa at present.
This finding suggests that ocean water-rock interactions are likely confined to the uppermost few hundred meters of the seafloor, limiting the possibilities for habitable conditions on the seafloor.
Future research will seek to gather direct evidence of the geology and tectonics of Europa.
“Europe is probably experiencing some tidal warming, which is why it’s not completely frozen over,” Dr Byrne said.
“And there may have been a lot more heating in the distant past.”
“But we don’t see volcanoes rising from the ice today like we see on Io, and our calculations suggest that the tides are not strong enough to cause any significant geological activity on the seafloor.”
The results were published this week in the journal Natural communications.
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PK Byrne and others. 2026. Few or no active faults likely on the European seafloor today. Nat Common 17, 4; doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-67151-3
