[X] My Assistant

[Decepticon]

Can someone point me in the right direction to any full Radar Swath releases.

For some unknown reason I can't find mine on my PC.


Thanks.

[Juramike]

I think there might be three things coming together:

1) A tectonic ridge structure running left right across the Swath.
2) Possible almost orthogonal undulations or deep valleys cutting across the tectonic ridgeline
3) The entire structure indundated.

[And 4) a little crater on the archepeligo that got breached and the wall on the right side collapsed.]

Titan is unimodal: there is no evidence for tectonic subduction. But there can be gentle upwarping and downwarping. I wildly speculate that the north polar region has a broad downwarping. (Adiri and Xanadu, may have been subjected to ancient upwarping.).

I also speculate wildly that Titan may have had several climate shifts. There may have been an earlier period of extensive erosion in the North polar region, only to be followed by later indundation with the present climate.

[Other evidence for this? The fretted terrain of T18 and T39 may have been formed by erosion into earlier deposited materials. Uniform erosion across similarly friable materials would explain the observed pattern (just like fretted terrain on Mars)]

So this terrain may have had tectonic ridges and orthogonal undulations getting cut and eroded by an earlier stormy climate. It would have looked like a more-eroded version of Adiri. Then a broad regional downwarping could have drowned the mountains and broad valleys with sediment and lake fluids, giving the landscape we see today.

Being able to penetrate the murk and see what is in those gaps and beyond would be key to confirming this scenario. If this scenario is correct, we should see broad subsurface valleys extending out into the lakes, possibly hidden by sediments. Lake level changes should be evident along the up-down shoreline (shallow gradient of undulations) but less evident along the right-left tectonic ridges (steeper gradient.)

The main difference (I think) between the "archipeligo cuts" in this area vs. the reversible channel in T8 is that the T8 channel went in the direction of the EW tectonic ridges (cutting across a broad NS uplifted area and had an interesting RADAR gradient pattern at either end. In this area I think the "cuts" are parts of long deep valleys that would have a unidirectional gentle gradient.

Another possibility for this area would be glacial features that might've been pinned back by the tectonic ridge. But that idea is really off the top of my head. (Then you would expect to see an offshore morainal dump zone if you could magically penetrate the murk).

Looking at other shorelines near this region might also help elucidate what's going on. (Might get lucky and see some diagnostic features exposed and visible in SAR RADAR images of shallower regions)

Whatever formed this, it would be a really, really neat place to explore by kayak!

-Mike