Plate #tectonics represents a defining framework of modern #geoscience, accounting for large-scale features on Earth’s surface, such as mountains and valleys, as well as the processes that shape them, like volcanoes and earthquakes.

Present-day plate tectonics have not been observed on any other world in the solar system, and evidence of past activity on planets such as #Mars and #Venus is circumstantial.

Perhaps the best case for extraterrestrial plate tectonics is found in the floating ice shell of #Jupiter’s #moon #Europa.

The plate tectonics on Europa differs from its Earthly analog. It is spatially widespread; it is regionally confined rather than globally connected; it occurs intermittently and is not happening now; and during past activity, plates drifted limited distances of between 10 and 100 kilometers.

#planets
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/europas-plate-tectonic-activity-is-unlike-earths

Paper by Collins et al. (2022):
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JE007492