Jesús Martínez Frías
Planetary geologist and astrobiologist at the IGEO (CSIC-UCM). Academician of the Royal Academies of Sciences and Doctors of Spain. President of the Planetary Geology Commission of the Geological Society of Spain and of the Spanish Network of Planetology and Astrobiology.
It is a research of excellent quality from the point of view of comparative planetology (in this case comparing a planet, such as Earth, with an icy moon, such as Europa), which establishes a potential analogue in Greenland, both in terms of materials (ice) and geodynamic processes.
The conclusions are, in my opinion, more a discussion chapter than the typical and conventional conclusions of an experimental study with data. However, it is not without validity. The scientific analogies and hypotheses are very well established and the terrestrial analogs are proving very useful (as observed, for example, on Mars).
The proposed model is geologically very plausible and interesting, although the astrobiological allusions to habitability would require more data than those reflected in the article.
It is a work that follows the usual conceptual and methodological lines of the application of terrestrial analogues (in this case, ice and its dynamics) to other planets and moons, with the consequent limitation that this implies.
Knowledge of our planetary environment is fundamental to understand the context in which we find ourselves, especially if there are components of the study that could be related to the possible existence of life beyond what we know.
I believe that the authors have been rigorous in this case and have avoided unnecessary and, in many cases, counterproductive speculations in the article, which could lead to confusion.