[X] My Assistant

[volcanopele]

Well, for those who really like RADAR SAR swaths, today is a good day for you. The T13 RADAR swath from April, THE ENTIRE SWATH, has been publically released on the Photojournal.

Titan (T13) Viewed by Cassini's Radar - April 30, 2006
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08552

PIA08604: Xanadu's Meandering Rivers
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08604

PIA08605: Titan's Geological Goldmine - Radar Movie
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08605

[Juramike]

I'm not sure that methane would be able to form a glacier (even hailstones stuck together will eventually melt).

But assuming that precipitation that comes down is not pure raindrops. That instead of a pure liquid, it is a droplet containing captured atmospheric chemistry products + methane. (I'll assume that the most of the materials are relatively insoluble and stay on the outside of the drop.) As the methane evaporates, the stuff makes a little crusty shell outside the drop.

[Check out: Lorenz, R Planet Space Sci. 41 (1993), 9, 647-655. "The life, death, and afterlife of a raindrop on Titan." Especially the part about "Ghost rain". I think that the rain does make it to the surface (possibly as hailstones), but then evaporates or percolates away, leaving a little residual shell on the surface. Anyone remember Mt. St. Helens ashfall-rains and the mess they made? - kinda like that.]

So the rainfall delivers organic products onto the surface. At the surface, these may be light and fluffy enough to form drifts. But down deep as the stuff piles up and up (over 100 meters!), once the structure is compacted, could the deposited organic gemish reform a structure that would begin to deform and creep?

How does a 100 meter thick mass of glycine behave at 93 K? How about acetylene or acetonitrile or any of the "higher" waxy hydrocarbons like butane or pentane? Could some of these segregate and squirt out of the mass and begin to flow?

If these exist on a big scale, they should be pretty obvious. (Smooth dark flows at originating the base or valleys of atmospheric deposits). Nothing seems to fit so far. So obvious glaciers are not currently seen on Titan (so far..)

And if there were glaciers of non-volatile/non-soluble stuff in the past, where did they go?

-Mike

[EDIT: One of the things that has been nagging me for quite a while is the "spooky dude" formation of the Huygens landing site. To my geocentric worldview, the upstream pointing parabolas are screaming "Moraine!" - but that is a topic that best fits the Huygens thread].