New map projection for Enceladus, tiger stripes in context! Options

[chuckclark]

Here's a good map for contemplating tiger stripes in relation to the rest of the moon's surface (15˚ graticles).


A larger version over here

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[chuckclark]

Here's the same projection, but focused on the opposite pole. And with the 0–180 meridian across the middle, left to right.
The trailing hemisphere is the top half and the leading hemisphere is the bottom half.

What I'm wondering is: is there any usefulness to this view? Seems to me that if the incredibly active south pole shows up so distinctly in the first map (above, this thread), and the tiger stripes and the ring around them are due to tidal flexing, we'd see something similar happening at the north pole, where the tidal flexing stresses are presumably no different.

But we don't, right?

(A quick edit: this map is not exactly the same as the first one: the map boundary is slightly altered to reduce maximum shape distortion.)

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[JRehling]

Seems to me [...] we'd see something similar happening at the north pole, where the tidal flexing stresses are presumably no different.

It possible that the tidal flexing is symmetrical at depth, in an underlying rocky mantle, but the rising of that heat upwards is asymmetrical because, having found one outlet to the surface, a cycle of circulation began that rids much/all of the underlying levels of its heat.

Think of a volcano overlying a magma pocket on Earth. It doesn't melt the entire region. It finds expression to the surface in a number of vents – possibly just one – and the venting there rids the entire local region of heat. In the case of Enceladus, it could be that one vent serves the entire tiny world.

Mars, even, shows signs of very few locales having served as the vents for the entire planet. That's not just one region, and the regions in question aren't that small, but then Mars is a lot bigger than Enceladus.