Passage: 'For decades, geophysicists believed that plate tectonics was unique to Earth in our solar system. The discovery of strike-slip faulting and localized subduction-like rifting on Jupiter's icy moon Europa has challenged this view. Beneath its fractured ice shell lies a global saline ocean subjected to immense tidal flexing by Jupiter's gravitational pull. Thermal plumes rising from hydrothermal vents on Europa's silicate mantle floor could provide convective energy to fracture the brittle ice crust, driving an exotic ice-plate tectonic regime.'

What energy source is hypothesized to drive ice tectonics on Europa?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: A. Tidal flexing from Jupiter generating hydrothermal heating within the silicate mantle

  1. Step 1: Identify the tectonic mechanism described on Europa: thermal plumes rising from hydrothermal vents on the silicate mantle provide convective energy to fracture the ice shell.
  2. Step 2: Trace the underlying energy source of the hydrothermal vents: the text attributes this energy to immense tidal flexing caused by Jupiter's gravitational pull.
  3. Step 3: Therefore, the driving energy source is tidal flexing from Jupiter generating hydrothermal heating within the silicate mantle.
Answer
Tidal flexing from Jupiter generating hydrothermal heating within the silicate mantle.

Practise more Reading Comprehension.

Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed GMAT mock tests.

All Reading Comprehension questionsTake a mock test

More Reading Comprehension questions