Titan's topography, strange.... Options

[centsworth_II]

...I wonder though if that beautiful volcano and lava flow is deserving of a more eloquent name.

OS (Oil Spill) Crater?

I had to look up the SP name. I love the way the Wikipedia entry describes mapmakers' reluctance to print the actual name.

"...the dark lava spatter on the rim, and the long dark lava flow extruding from the base do indeed resemble a toilet catastrophe. Mapmakers refused to spell out the full name, and the mountain has been shown on maps and other literature with the abbreviated name."

[nprev]

Juramike is right; we really don't need to explore this crap any further.

Moving on...

[remcook]

For those with access to Icarus, Ralph Lorenz et al. made a topographical map of Titan http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...019103513001620

[ngunn]

That's great, thanks for posting. Even for those of us without access to the paper the map itself is right there in your link.

[ElkGroveDan]

Ironic. A map of a cryogenic world in a publication called Icarus.

[JRehling]

This looks similar, at global scale, to topographical maps of Mars. I wonder how much that has to do with the spin axis being chosen by the topography, and not vice versa. Or being coincidental.

[titanicrivers]

Thanks for the link to the figures and maps. Fig 3 the Interpolated topography map has four elevated areas in the south-eastern quadrant one of which we have recently portrayed in several UMSF posts. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...3168&st=194 The elevated area at 150W and 50S is the dissected plateau of T59 as depicted below.

[titanicrivers]

Again starting with Fig 3 the Interpolated topography map, the fourth elevated areas in the south-eastern quadrant (D) has appeared in several UMSF posts and in Photojournal http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03565 The elevated area is the dissected plateau of T7 as depicted below.

[titanicrivers]

Approximate low spot on Titan at 317W and 59S. Some nice fans or deltas nearby. Data derived from Lorenz et al http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...019103513001620

[Bill Harris]

PIA03565 The elevated area is the dissected plateau of T7 as depicted below.

Terrain like that impresses me as the surface expression of ice diapirs.

--Bill

[ngunn]

I agree. Taking the SAR image and the topography together that's another persuasive diapir candidate. I also note that 'New Wrinkles' discussed earlier coincides with a topographic rise on the new map.

[titanicrivers]

A very nice observation Nigel! Its especially the further south and west new wrinkle that has a topographic high spot on that map. I was also interested in the high spot along the T39 swath located between 40 and 50 S and 210 to 220 W. VP's SAR's for part 1 of T39 show the high point corresponds with highly dissected (labrynthine) terrain with a fluvial valley bordering part of it. SAR topo confirms this is high ground even though so eroded.

[rlorenz]

For those with access to Icarus, Ralph Lorenz et al. made a topographical map of Titan

Actually, the manuscript, all the figures at high resolution, and the numerical gridded topography data as ascii, are all at
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rlorenz/titantopo/

enjoy !

[Bill Harris]

enjoy!

Indeed. Thanks.



Someone-- jog my ailing memory, I don't work with tidally-locked bodies that often-- on longitudes, what is the sub-Saturnian point, and what is the leading hemisphere? I'm thinking that 0* is sub-saturnian, 90* is leading, and so on...


--Bill

[titanicrivers]

Actually, the manuscript, all the figures at high resolution ... enjoy !

These are superb Ralph !! Its is treasure trove for us Titan affectionados. If I may, there is part of the T83 swath containing the possible volcanic structure ('hot-cross bun') that I haven't been able to find and I see you have it in your Fig 9 topo map. Jason Perry has the polar portion of the swath on his web site http://pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu/~perry/RADAR/#T83 but not the initial portion between 20 and 60 N. Is there a place to download the entire T83 swath? Was there any topographic info to add to 'hot-cross bun' to make its possible volcanic geomorphic status more compelling?
Thanks
Titanicrivers.
EDIT: ditto for the T84 SAR swath !