Data associated with Scully et al. (2025): Small in Number but Mighty in Significance: Impact Craters as Windows into Europa’s Subsurface
Description
These data are the full supporting information of the JGR Planets paper, Scully et al. (2025) Small in Number but Mighty in Significance: Impact Craters as Windows into Europa’s Subsurface, as follows: *The full and interactive geologic maps of Pwyll and Manannán impact craters are available as ArcMap Layer Package Files (LPK), *All the Galileo Solid State Imager (SSI) data (greyscale, color and derived DEMs) are available as .CUB and .TIF files, which are georeferenced to the latest Europan coordinate system, *All the Galileo Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) data (NIMS raster products and wavelength files) are available as georeferenced .TIF and .CSV files. Abstract of Scully et al. (2025) for context: Impact craters are rare on the icy ocean world Europa: only 24 ≧10 km in diameter are currently observed. Craters ≳20 km in diameter, such as Pwyll and Manannán, display unusual morphologies, perhaps because they excavate down close to the subsurface ocean. Previous work suggests Manannán may have impacted into liquid, slushy ice or thinner ice than at Pwyll. Here we show that impact craters, via their intrinsic morphologic and compositional properties, as well as impact-excavation of otherwise unobservable materials, provide windows into subsurface structure and composition, making them natural laboratories for investigating Europa’s habitability. We find that both Pwyll and Manannán excavated dark material from ~3.1 km deep, which could be intriguing non-ice materials such as H2SO4 or hydrated minerals. We calculate that Pwyll impacted into a solid ice shell of ≧10.7 km thickness. We hypothesize that Manannán may have impacted into less viscous material, and detail how this can be tested with future Europa Clipper data. We also hypothesize that a reservoir of sub-surface impact-induced material sourced the lobate material within Pwyll. This hypothesis can also be tested with Europa Clipper data and, if confirmed, would provide targets to observe salts derived from potentially some of the most processed brines on Europa. Please direct any questions to lead author, Dr. Scully: jennifer.e.scully@jpl.nasa.gov