While many previously proposed enceladus plume transport models rely on a sharp liquid/gas boiling interface, most forms of terrestrial explosive silicate volcanism, a potential analog, exhibit…

The U.S. government has awarded a $495,334 grant to the Trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology, a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. The grant is for advancing the "CRYO-ERUPT" multi-component, multi-phase compressible plume transport model, which has implications for understanding the eruption of materials from Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. This research is of interest for potential future missions to directly sample erupted or erupting materials from Enceladus. The grant is funded by a civilian U.S. government agency, and there is no set-aside designation. Stevens Institute of Technology has extensive experience as a prime contractor and research partner for federal agencies, particularly the Department of Defense, and has secured numerous federal grants across a range of scientific and engineering domains.

While many previously proposed enceladus plume transport models rely on a sharp liquid/gas boiling interface, most forms of terrestrial explosive silicate volcanism, a potential analog, exhibit continuous exsolution/degassing and expansion of dissolved volatile bubbles during ascent within an open conduit. The team proposes to advance the multi-component, multi-phase compressible plume transport model "cryo-erupt." advancing this model and determining if model predictions are consistent with existing enceladus observations represents an important contribution for two primary reasons: 1) the growing interest in directly sampling erupted or erupting materials for future missions to enceladus, 2) the under-explored nature of this class of plume transport model, which our preliminary work suggests is valid and stable on long timescales. If consistent with enceladus observations, the cryo-erupt model fundamentally changes our understanding of how the enceladus plume erupts, and has implications for relating plume observations to ocean composition.