Creating Clouds: Cracks Or Cryovolcanoes?, Article in the new Science issue Options

[SigurRosFan]

Cracks Or Cryovolcanoes? Surface Geology Creates Clouds On Titan

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-titan-05zd.html

[OWW]

Cracks Or Cryovolcanoes? Surface Geology Creates Clouds On Titan

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-titan-05zd.html

I love it how the next day, other scientists already have a theory that contradicts the first one:

http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANew...ArticleID=11870

"Griffith argues that it's improbable that many ice volcanoes, all aligned at 40 degrees south latitude, are forming these clouds"

[mike]

Different people don't always agree on things.

[Rob Pinnegar]

Especially at this stage of the game. Titan is a complicated place and we still haven't seen large parts of it in much detail yet. Imagine trying to figure out Earth from one lander and an orbiter taking fuzzy pictures. Even without the biosphere it'd be a big job -- plate tectonics, thunderstorms, hurricanes, contintental glaciation, ocean currents, erosion, rivers...

Is Titan just as complex? I hope so, personally.

[volcanopele]

I agree with the VIMS group on this one. I just can't see how a line of volcanoes or cracks right at this latitude across thousands of miles could exist. Most likely we are looking at convection driven by general circulation.

WRT the Roe et al. paper, I don't think the question is why the clouds preferentially form near 0 and 90 degrees west, but why the DON'T seem to form as often at other locations along 40 degrees south.

[Bob Shaw]

I agree with the VIMS group on this one.  I just can't see how a line of volcanoes or cracks right at this latitude across thousands of miles could exist.  Most likely we are looking at convection driven by general circulation.

WRT the Roe et al. paper, I don't think the question is why the clouds preferentially form near 0 and 90 degrees west, but why the DON'T seem to form as often at other locations along 40 degrees south.

Welllll... ...you get volcanoes on Earth in lines and arcs, and on Mars - and who'd have believed in Valles Marineris, or the East African Rift Valley? So you *can* get large structures associated with vulcanism her, so why not on Titan?

Bob Shaw

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

The team seems in little doubt that the LATITUDE of the 40 deg S. clouds is determined by Titan's Hadley convection cycles. The question remaining is why they seem to congregate around 0 deg LONGITUDE, and the only plausible explanations for that involve surface phenomena (whether it's geothermal vents of methane vapor, or high mountains over which Titan's winds are blowing).

[remcook]

...but like they say: the fact that the clouds don't appear at exactly the same spot every time is an indication that mountains may not be the cause...

[volcanopele]

Welllll... ...you get volcanoes on Earth in lines and arcs, and on Mars - and who'd have believed in Valles Marineris, or the East African Rift Valley? So you *can* get large structures associated with vulcanism her, so why not on Titan?

Bob Shaw

Yes, but two such features, right on the same latitude line, but no where else, and without apparent surface expression seen by either ISS or RADAR? While I would love to see a line of volcanoes or a rift zone, I just don't think the evidence fits. Now, I do agree that volcanic activity is pumping methane into the atmosphere, but I think these geysers are likely more evenly spaced or at least not coincidently on a line of latitude. So Hadley Circulation is likely the cause of their formation location with either a selection effect or something preventing the clouds from forming in other locations is the likely culprits for the supposed clustering at certain longitudes.