An intriguing idea for finding oceans on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, involves not much more than a microphone. As tidal forces squeeze the moon, any ice sitting above water will flex, crack and quake, creating audio signatures.

Nick Makris, an acoustical oceanographer and associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present this idea next week at the Geological Society of American conference in Denver.

The technique has already been tested on ice above the Arctic Sea and more trials will be done at Lake Vostok and other thick Antarctic ice sheets, more similar to Europa's estimated 20 kilometre depth of ice.

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