43rd LPSC abstracts Options

[titanicrivers]

The 43rd LPSC abstracts have been posted today on the meeting website. Lots of studies on Titan to view!!!
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/program.pdf

[ngunn]

I’m just beginning to trawl through the Titan abstracts and here’s a subject that has already caught my eye: Fossil dunes on Titan. Two abstracts that discuss them below. They are the main topic of the first and make an intriguing cameo appearance in the second.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2224.pdf
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2759.pdf

See the The ‘Results’ section of 2759. SAR stereo appears to show in one area dunes that are 100-200 metres lower than the bright inter-dune strips between them. The authors preface this announcement with the phrase “Much to our surprise” – understandably! It appears that Titan has played yet another wild card. They set out four possible explanations for the surprise, but my favourite is that the currently active sands overlie an area of fossil dunes.

Questions abound, as is usually the case with surprising new data.

[ngunn]

OK Mike's obviously not going to post this so I will. It's not the only paper he's contributed to but he's the lead here - he did the experiments. Great stuff (on a low budget):
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2139.pdf