A new analysis of stress, tides and internal forces shows that Jupiter's icy moon Europa lacks the active seafloor faults needed for sustained hydrothermal circulation, with implications for chemical energy and habitability.
Europa's surface appears large in this newly processed color image; image scale – 1.6 km per pixel; northern Europe is on the right. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute.
On Earth, tectonic activity is known to play an important role in maintaining life-supporting habitats.
This occurs through the interaction of water and rocks on 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 the presence of an environment capable of supporting life.
It is believed that there is an underground ocean beneath the icy surface of one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.
Previous research has suggested that there may be volcanic activity on Europa's seafloor, but whether tectonic activity is possible has not been previously studied.
“If we could explore this ocean with a remote-controlled submarine, we predict that we would not see any new faults, active volcanoes or plumes of hot water on the seafloor,” said Dr. Paul Byrne, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.
“From a geological point of view, there's nothing special going on there. Everything would be quiet.”
“And in an icy world like Europe, a quiet seabed could very well mean a lifeless ocean.”
Dr Byrne and his colleagues carried out extensive modeling to assess potential tectonic activity in Europa's proposed subsurface ocean.
These predictions were compared with known or inferred behavior on Earth's seafloor and on Enceladus.
The researchers looked at stresses caused by tides, global compression, mantle convection and serpentinization, a geological process that occurs when rocks interact with water.
However, they found that neither of these processes is likely driving tectonic activity, even along pre-existing faults in Europe's seafloor today.
This discovery suggests that interactions between ocean water and rocks are likely limited to the top few hundred meters of the seafloor, limiting the ability to create habitable conditions on the seafloor.
Future research will focus on collecting direct evidence of the geology and tectonics of Europe.
“Europe is probably experiencing tidal heating, so it hasn't frozen completely,” Dr Byrne said.
“And there may have been a lot more heat here in the distant past.”
“But today we don't see volcanoes bursting out of the ice like on Io, and our calculations suggest that the tides are not strong enough to cause any significant geological activity on the seafloor.”
results were published this week in the magazine Natural communications.
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PC Byrne etc.. 2026. Today there are virtually no active faults on the seafloor of Europe. Nat Common 17, 4; two: 10.1038/s41467-025-67151-3
