STABILITY OF WATER ON IO

A variety of processes have been examined to determine their impact on water loss from Io and the formation of an anhydrous surface. Thermal escape, photolysis, and gas-phase charged particle interactions are shown to be unimportant in this regard. Recent laboratory experiments have shown that charged-particle sputtering is likely to be an effective mechanism for the removal of water ice from Io's surface. Vaporization of ice by meteoroid impacts may also be significant. The overall sputtering rate appears to be sufficiently high that the formation of a substantial regolith due to meteoroid bombardment will be prevented. However, meteoroid bombardment is probably capable of maintaining a thin (- 500 μm overturned surface layer from which all free water has been removed by sputtering. Alternatively, a thick anhydrous surface layer may have formed on Io as the result of primordial heating. The survival of such a layer to the present implies the absence of subsequent water evolution onto the surface of the satellite. © 1979.