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Previous studies that have considered the ocean circulation on Enceladus havegenerally assumed the salinity to be Earth-like. However, according toobservations and geochemical constraints, the salinity of Enceladus' ocean islikely to be lower, and importantly, it is probably low enough to reverse thesign of thermal expansivity. We investigate the ocean circulation andstratification of Enceladus' ocean using a combination of theoretical argumentsand simulations using the MITgcm. We find that, if the salinity is high, thewhole ocean is unstratified, and convection dominates the entire ocean.However, if the salinity is low enough, there exists a stratified layer in theupper ocean, whose thickness depends on the magnitude of the turbulent verticaldiffusivity, which remains poorly constrained. Such a layer can suppress thevertical flux of heat and tracers, thereby affecting the heat flux to the iceshell and leading to a vertical tracer mixing time scale across the stratifiedlayer of at least hundreds of years. This time scale is inconsistent with aprevious estimate of vertical ocean mixing of several years, based on the sizeof detected silica nanoparticles in the plumes, leading us to conclude thateither the salinity of Enceladus' ocean is higher than previously suggested orthe interpretation of silica nanoparticle observations has to be reconsidered.

Ocean Circulation on Enceladus With a High Versus Low Salinity Ocean