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On the stability and phase behavior of Titan's subsurface liquid columns

by: Sugata P. Tan, Hertanto Adidharma

(Planetary and Space Science 2022, 214, 105451)

Abstract

On Titan, liquid hydrocarbon may stay in the subsurface porous permeable crust known as the alkanofer, analogous to water in Earth's aquifer. In addition to pressure gradient, the subsurface liquid in alkanofers is subject to vertical compositional grading due to the gravity and temperature gradient. The common wisdom is that the liquid would normally stay underground in a stability established by the pressure that increases with depth as observed in aquifers on Earth. However, Titan's liquids consist of nitrogen and hydrocarbons, mainly methane and ethane, the behavior of which is very sensitive to temperature and pressure. Consequently, the liquid density does not always increase with depth, thus may introduce a reverse density profile that leads to vertical convective instability of the liquid column. If reverse density profiles are present, capillary pressures arising from liquid trapped within small pores in the crust can help with the column stability. The liquid held in the capillaries can seal the space below it thus helping with the stability, unless the overpressure built from underneath becomes larger than the capillary pressure, which causes leakage to allow the liquids to seep upward from the deep. This situation is analogous to hydrocarbon seeps on Earth, where oil and natural gas escape the reservoir and flow slowly through network of cracks to the surface. An algorithm based on an extended Gibbs equation commonly used in petroleum reservoir engineering is employed in this work to produce pressure, density, and compositional profiles for evaluating the stability and phase behavior of Titan's subsurface fluids.