In a report published September 7 in Nature Geoscience, researchers have provided the first potential evidence of plate tectonics elsewhere in the Universe. “Earth is not unique — we’ve found another body in the solar system with plate tectonics,” says Simon Kattenhorn of the University of Idaho. “This tells us that this process can happen on more than just rocky planets like Earth.” Researchers had previously found evidence of plate tectonics on Mars, but it looks like those processes ended long ago.
As io9 reports:
Researchers Simon Kattenhorn and Louise Prockter observed areas of the icy moon where cracks opened up and where new material came up from underneath the ice, creating new surface areas.
It’s likely that a plate tectonic system is moving old portions of Europa’s surface beneath adjacent plates, similar to subduction zones on Earth.