[X] My Assistant

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The above-titled paper by Barnes et al. is being published online today in Geophysical Research Letters.

[volcanopele]

grr, even co-Authors would have to pay 9 bucks since I'm a "non-subscriber..."

I think I can dig up the corrected proof from my email if anyone has any questions.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Though slightly off-topic, there's also an interesting paper by the VIMS team (Rodriguez et al.) about observations of the Huygens landing site. The paper is currently in press with Planetary and Space Science, and, if I'm not mistaken, some of the results were previewed at COSPAR or LPSC.

[volcanopele]

Though slightly off-topic, there's also an interesting paper by the VIMS team (Rodriguez et al.) about observations of the Huygens landing site. The paper is currently in press with Planetary and Space Science, and, if I'm not mistaken, some of the results were previewed at COSPAR or LPSC.

Thanks for the heads up. I like the last sentence of the abstract:

"The images show also a morphological structure that can be interpreted as a 150 km diameter impact crater with a central peak." Just goes to show how you have to be careful when interpreting albedo features. Let's just say it isn't an impact crater (or a volcano before anyone tries to jump in).

[remcook]

Jason, I can't access the article right now... Is this the same bright spot as here:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07877

also, I would love to hear some general things about Titan's geology in layman's terms. My limited knowledge about Titan only starts above the tropopause... Can you point me to some good reference or paper? The only thing i've read is Ralph Lorentz's book...

[volcanopele]

No, that's Hotei Arcus. The study area can be seen in this ISS image:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06192

And in this VIMS mosaic (the bright region at lower right, in SW Xanadu):

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06983

Now this paper describes a possible cryovolcanic flow, identified in VIMS and ISS data, in the western portion of Tui Regio. I have attached PIA06192 with the flows outlined in the paper highlighted. There are outlined based on their unique spectral signature compared to the surrounding terrain in southwestern Xanadu, and by their appearance in higher resolution ISS data from Tb (PIA06192 is from T3 last February). These features are identified as cryoflows based on their lobate structure, size (a landslide of this magnitude would require an altitude difference of 3km to for a deposit), and non-radiality (so it isn't ejecta from an impact crater). We also argue that "bluish" terrain in the VIMS data surrounding western Tui Regio is due an airfall deposit from this volcano. We argue that the ISS data suggests that the morphology of the flow is influence by pre-existing local topography, particularly a 60 km wide circular feature northwest of the flow source that maybe an impact crater.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[remcook]

thanks! any idea how the spectral differences translate to a difference in composition,e.g. more 'watery', or more 'tholiny', more ammonia, or more 'strange stuff that Huygens found'?

[volcanopele]

for those without access to GRL, the main author, Jason Barnes, has kindly put the paper on his website: http://c3po.barnesos.net/publications/papers/westTui.pdf

[ngunn]

for those without access to GRL, the main author, Jason Barnes, has kindly put the paper on his website: http://c3po.barnesos.net/publications/papers/westTui.pdf

Very useful - thanks to both Jasons!!

[ngunn]

Though slightly off-topic, there's also an interesting paper by the VIMS team (Rodriguez et al.) about observations of the Huygens landing site. The paper is currently in press with Planetary and Space Science, and, if I'm not mistaken, some of the results were previewed at COSPAR or LPSC.

I can't get this link to work. Any chance you (somebody?) could post the Rodriguez et. al. abstract?

[remcook]

I can't get this link to work. Any chance you (somebody?) could post the Rodriguez et. al. abstract?

this better? link

[ngunn]

this better?

Yes that's done it, thanks.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Thanks for editing the link. Some forums have problems with the super-long URLs, which is why I used makeashorterlink.com to truncate it down to bite size. However, it appears that some people have problems accessing makeashorterlink.com, or that the site is frequently down, which defeats the whole purpose.

In any event, there's a newly posted VIMS preprint in Planetary and Space Science by Buratti et al.

[remcook]

Jason and Jason,

perhaps a stupid question: if the tendrils are from the volcano and their relative 5 um brightness correspond to their relative age, then what is the rest of Tui Regio (which, from the VIMS image, doesn't seem to be much different from the tendrils in composition) and why can't you use the same reasoning to say something about its relative age (but then it wouldn't be centred around the possible volcano)? Also, are there more tendrils on the east site of the regio?

[Jason W Barnes]

Jason and Jason,

perhaps a stupid question: if the tendrils are from the volcano and their relative 5 um brightness correspond to their relative age, then what is the rest of Tui Regio (which, from the VIMS image, doesn't seem to be much different from the tendrils in composition) and why can't you use the same reasoning to say something about its relative age (but then it wouldn't be centred around the possible volcano)? Also, are there more tendrils on the east site of the regio?

I didn't talk about eastern Tui Regio for two reasons: (1) both the VIMS and ISS data there are of significantly lower resolution, and (2) I wanted to keep the article concise enough to fit into a Letter. The east is even brighter, and is certainly interesting! Hopefully we'll get some higher resolution on it in the coming flybys.

- Jason