Abstract
Cassini observations imply that there is a global ocean underneath Enceladus’s ice shell with hydrothermal seafloor activity. Previous numerical simulations showed that convection in Enceladus’s unconsolidated core may produce a heterogeneous seafloor heat flux and hydrothermal activity, potentially explaining the South Polar ice thinning and plume activity. How the ocean transports heat and hydrothermal products is the missing piece of the Enceladus puzzle. Here we perform three-dimensional numerical simulations of the ocean dynamics using a very heterogeneous bottom boundary condition from three-dimensional hydrothermal core simulations. We gradually increase the heterogeneity amplitude of the bottom heat flux until its peak-to-peak value reaches 60 times its mean. We show that a strong zonal flow diminishes low-latitude heat transfer, whereas the heat flux remains efficient in polar regions, which explains the ice shell variations derived from gravity and topography observations. Using passive tracers, we predict rising times of hours to weeks, which are compatible with previous predictions. Our simulations confirm that a strong heterogeneous seafloor heat flux concentrates upwellings at the South Pole, thus efficiently transporting organic matter from hydrothermal vents to erupting plumes.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.B. (mathieu.bouffard@univ-nantes.fr).
Code availability
The source code is available at https://bitbucket.org/mathieubouffard/source_code_enceladus/src/master/.
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Acknowledgements
Simulations were performed at the CCIPL facility (Centre de Calcul Intensif des Pays de la Loire, Nantes, France). We acknowledge financial support from the French Agence Nationale de Recherche (Project ANR COLOSSE and Grant No. ANR-2020-CE49-0010 to G.C). F.T.-N. is supported by the Centre National des Études Spatiales France. O.Č. is a member of the Nečas Center for Numerical Modeling. H.A. acknowledges financial support from the French Agence Nationale de Recherche, project DYRE-COMB (grant ANR-22-CE49-0016-01).
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G.C. conceived the idea for the study. M.B. modified the PARODY code, performed the simulations, processed the data, wrote the manuscript and made the figures. All authors contributed to data analysis and interpretation, as well as manuscript writing and wording.
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Bouffard, M., Choblet, G., Amit, H. et al. Seafloor hydrothermal control over ocean dynamics in Enceladus. Nat Astron 9, 650–657 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02490-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-025-02490-1
