Timing and Abundance of Clathrate Formation Control Ocean Evolution in Outer Solar System Bodies: Challenges of Maintaining a Thick Ocean within Pluto

Clathrate hydrates may represent a sizable fraction of material within the icy shells of Kuiper Belt objects and icy moons. They influence the chemical and thermal evolution of subsurface oceans by locking volatiles into the ice shell and by providing more thermal insulation than pure water ice. We model the formation of these crystalline compounds in conditions relevant to outer solar system objects, using Pluto as an example. Although Pluto may have hosted a thick ocean in its early history, Pluto’s overall heat budget is probably insufficient to preserve liquid today if its outer shell is pure water ice. One previously proposed reconciliation is that Pluto’s ocean has a winter jacket: an insulating layer of methane clathrate hydrates. Unfortunately, assessments of the timing, quantity, and type of clathrate hydrates forming within planetary bodies are lacking. Our work quantifies the abundance of clathrate-forming gases present in Pluto’s ocean from accreted ices and volatiles released during thermal metamorphism throughout Pluto’s history. We find that if Pluto formed with the same relative abundances of ices found in comets, then a buoyant layer of mixed methane and carbon dioxide clathrate hydrates may form above Pluto’s ocean, though we find it insufficient to preserve a thick ocean today. In general, our study provides methodology for predicting clathrate formation in ocean worlds, which is necessary to predict the evolution of the ocean’s composition and whether a liquid layer remains at present.