Titan's topography, strange.... |
Titan's topography, strange.... |
Apr 12 2009, 12:44 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Recent article in Science by Zebker et al.:
Zebker et al. Science in press, "Size and Shape of Saturn's Moon Titan". doi: 10.1126/science.1168905 (published online April 2, 2009) Link to abstract (pay-for article): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1168905 Article on spaceref discusses this paper: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27912 Figure 3 from the Science article is a global elevation map relative to barycenter. Key points of article:
"Xanadu seems to be systematically lower than other parts of the equatorial belt, and not uplifted like most mountainous areas on Earth." (quote from Fig. 3 caption in article) -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Apr 12 2009, 03:32 PM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Here's a cartooon showing how Xanadu could have formed:
1) A diapiric rise of warm low density (mostly due to warmth) water ice 2) reaches surface; erosion begins 3) cools and contracts; ice now denser (heavier) than surrounding crust; crustal deformation begins 3) regional depression begins as old diaipir sinks due to now-cooled higher density material Quote from the spaceref article: QUOTE "Zebker said that if you look at images of the surface of Titan, you see surface features that look every bit like mountains on Earth but don't have the high elevations compared to the plains stretching out around them.
'One of the really surprising finds that we have from this, is that the largest apparent continent is lower than the average elevation on Titan, as opposed to higher than the average elevation, as we have on the Earth,' Zebker said. 'My favorite explanation is that the material that forms the mountains is simply more dense than the material surrounding them,' he said. That would result in the mountains pushing down the surrounding crust, effectively putting the mountains in a basin of their own creation. On Earth, the situation is the reverse: The crust that lies under the oceans is denser than the material that makes up the continental crust, where mountain ranges are built up. 'The things that we would expect to exist on the surface of Titan would either be solid hydrocarbon materials, essentially frozen ethane and methane, and that is fairly light, and then frozen water ice, which is denser,' Zebker said. 'If the mountains are composed of water ice and the plain features in between are composed of these solid hydrocarbons, that could lead to this kind of a situation.' " -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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