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Fig. 3. | Earth, Planets and Space

Fig. 3.

From: Remarks on the Iapetus’ bulge and ridge

Fig. 3.

Panels A and B: An example of thermal and melting history of Iapetus according to our model for tini = 0.4 My, tacr = 1 My, η0 = 1012 Pa s. The vertical axis gives r/Rsat, the horizontal axis gives log10t, where t [My] is the time from the beginning of accretion. Panel A presents isotherms in Kelvin. Panel B presents fraction of latent heat supplied to the matter (1 means that matter is molten). Note substantial phase shift between temperature distribution and melting. Panel C: Radius of the molten region versus time for 4 different tini (see legend), tac = 1 My and η0 = 1012 Pa s. Note that partial melting of the satellite is possible for limited range of parameters only. For tini > 1 My there is not melting at all, while for tini < 0.2 My the whole satellite is molten.

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