Titan's Caspian Sea Options

[volcanopele]

A new RADAR image of a portion of Titan's "Caspian Sea" was just publically released:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09211

I have to say, this is an incredible view. The first thing I though of was how much it looked like the coastline in the Pacific Northwest.

[ugordan]

Sweet! That's some truly radar dark stuff, the sea ought to be pretty darn deep at least in this view. Practically no RADAR backscatter, apart from instrument noise.

[tty]

The first thing I though of was how much it looked like the coastline in the Pacific Northwest.

I must beg to differ. The pacific northwest is a typical ex-glaciated fjord coast. This looks much more like a ria coastline where rising sealevels has invaded a flattish landscape with a subdued drainage pattern. The coast of Virginia and North Carolina minus the barrier islands would in me opinion be a better parallell. In any case there is probably not enough energy to form barrier islands on Titan.

[volcanopele]

While geologically the eastern coast of the US may provide a better analog, I think the coast in the Pacific Northwest provides a better visual analog, given the sharper topography.

[djellison]

That is just jaw droppingly good.

[Juramike]

Beautiful! I am amazed at how rugged the coastline and islands appear! Total Fractal-land!

Wave erosion must be minimal to keep the margin looking so sharp. Or else we are seeing a landscape that is more flooded than normal.

Here are some interesting landscape comparisions on Earth:

Dalmatian coast : 43 degrees 52' N, 15 degrees 13' E
Turkish coast: 37 degrees 15' N, 27 degrees 32; E
Serifos Island (Greece - a good example of a fractal island): 37 degrees 10' N, 24 degrees 28' E

(Google Earth Scavenger hunt! Can anyone find a perfect match for the landscape around the lakes or islands?)

-Mike

[nprev]

Too right, Doug...I think that RADAR might be the best possible focus of the extended mission after all...

Tty, I share VP's opinion on my first impression here...first thing I thought of was the British Columbian/southeast Alaskan coastline. Your mechanism sounds a lot more plausible, though, given the fact that the West Coast of North America is very tectonically active in addition to the previous glaciation. The only thing I'm uncertain about is erosion rates.

The Carolina coast has relatively gentle contours because there is a relatively low level of tectonic activity, so wind, rain, and the ocean have smoothed things out faster than new rough topographic features can form.

Given all that, how can we reconcile this image with possible Titanian erosion rates? (I'm definitely not ready to postulate tectonics or glaciers of some bizarre composition here, and the rest of the moon makes me think that erosion moves pretty fast most places...)

[Adam]

Wow, that has to be one of the most impressive titan picture yet! Does anyone know where this fits in compared to earlier images of this sea?
Edit: Oh, i see there is a map in an other thread. The "Caspian sea" is really huge!

[ugordan]

See here for an approximate location.

[Juramike]

Another potential Earth Analog: Near Uwajima (JP): 33 degrees 11' N; 133 degrees 30' E.

Fractal coastline, (steep mountain valleys plunging into the sea), little coastal smoothing (protected waters - little or no wave action). [I dont think glaciers affected this landscape, no long straight bores done by an advancing river of ice.]

If these analogies are correct, I'll wager that the corresponding seashore on Titan is pretty steep!
(The Coastal Plain of the Carolinas is "flat as a flyswatter").

-Mike

[Pavel]

Indeed very similar.
Google map link

[David]

That's absolutely fantastic, and it gives me a totally crazy idea. There's been a lot of talk about sending a balloon to Titan and having it drift around getting sub-cloud images of the landscape, obviously covering a lot more area than even a wheeled rover could.

But would it be possible to drop a floating probe into one of these lakes, and have it sail, or at least drift -- covering a good deal of area, and (hopefully) getting a good view of the coasts? It would be nice to have it be able to crawl up on land (or at least push off from it) if it fetched up on an island, but that's perhaps too much to ask. Still, I think it would be very cool if the liquid regions of Titan could be utilized for getting around much larger portions of the moon's surface than a land vehicle could hope to do.

[Pavel]

Just two words:
Purgatory Reef

[mchan]

It would be pretty cool to be stuck for a short while in a reef if it's coral.

[Exploitcorporati...]

I'm really looking forward to seeing the names that will be applied to the lakes, seas, and islands of this region as mapping improves over the course of the extended mission(s). This is geography we can quickly identify with, and a treasure trove of terrestrial lake names are waiting to be attached to these features...will the seas be called "Mare"? What of the islands? "Facula" need not apply here.

-Droppin' bank in the swear jar, yo. Klink.