[X] My Assistant

[belleraphon1]

Thanks Mike... really really nice line up in the other thread. I am plugging in the Batsignal for Exploitcorporations too!!!!!

Doug... what thread should we use? This is no longer just T28 nor strictly the Equatorial Sand Seas?

Craig

[belleraphon1]

Some highlights of the lakes area... as usual, purely for "wow" reasons, not suggesting any scientific worth, ok?

Stu.... please keep wowing us.

WOW

[Juramike]

This is no longer just T28 nor strictly the Equatorial Sand Seas?

Ahhh, yes, all threads weaving together into one....convergence is at hand....

-Mike

[belleraphon1]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh

Singularity....

cannot see the other side of ecstasy.... but it is there....

Craig

[Olvegg]

Can some one line up http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09217 from T28
with http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09182 from T25?

My attempt (only for lakes, of course, I can't thnink now of something besides ):

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[marsman]

Extraordinary! Fractal patterns come to mind. High-res pictures of this fantastic landscape from balloons is something I hope to see in my lifetime.

[belleraphon1]

My attempt (only for lakes, of course, I can't thnink now of something besides ):

Thanks Olvegg. What beautiful patterns.

Fractal patterns indeed Marsman. Balloons would be great and hope that happens in my lifetime.

But, right now, I am trying to imagine what it would be like to hike that maze of organic dusted canyons, round some cragged corner, see that dappled shore. Then travel the ruffled plains, amidst mystery and wonder, tapping tuff from every boot step, til my footprints trace the benzene crests of dunes forever more.

So much more to know and we are SO just learning.

Craig

[nprev]

Yeah...imagination runs riot looking at these oddly familiar yet startlingly different vistas...

I keep wondering what the rivers sound like, or if the waves of the seas make a hissing noise on the ice sands of the shore as they recede.

[belleraphon1]

Yes nprev...

I try and think of the sounds as well. To sit on one of those shores....... listening to the liquid gurgle through the smurst and ice sand of the beach. What a wonderful word that is ..beach. Beaches are very rare in Sol system. Until Voyager, I thought Earth unuiqe in that respect .... even now that we know that interior oceans may be common... beaches are still rare.

These lakes are very dark.... rlorenz, any thought on what the wave features might be given how featurless is the radar return?

Craig

[Stu]

My attempt (only for lakes, of course, I can't thnink now of something besides ):

Now THAT's a WOW image! Thanks olvegg!

What a stunning, stunning place... still can't get over the fact that just a handful of years ago Titan was just a big orange ball to us, now we think of it as a world of lakes and seas, rivers and streams, valleys and mountains, beaches and shores... just unbelievable...

[Stu]

WOW

Thanks, I was quite pleased with those myself...

If you look at the area around the "island" and mess about with enhance it there's a heck of a lot of detail hiding in the shadows there... some long, meandering features and several small circular features too...

[nprev]

...Damn, Stu...that's just...just...words fail me. Uh, wow.

Hard to even get your head around this. It looks so bloody terrestrial in most respects, but assigning cause & effect relationships to explain the features is a real crap-shoot. Heck, is it possible that there are rivers of denser fluid carving channels in the substrate underneath a sea of less dense organic fluid?

Alternatively, perhaps we're seeing fossil features from a previous era recently submerged. Either way, the place looks dynamic as hell.

[Juramike]

Heck, is it possible that there are rivers of denser fluid carving channels in the substrate underneath a sea of less dense organic fluid?

That's entirely possible.

There could be different density gradients of things mixed with the organic layers that cause it to set up into differing layers. (Earth analog: the undercurrent that drives Earth's ocean circulations - these cause actual rivers under Earth's oceans. Nightclub analog: The layers in a tequila sunrise.)

The high latitude lakes should be fairly immune from tidal effects and possibly wind as well. Looking at the sharp shoreline above and in other images, it looks like the liquid slowly filled it up. There was no wave action or sloshing that would've rounded sharp headlands and deposited beaches in the valleys. I picture serene, quiet lakes whose levels slowly rise and fall with Not Much Else Happening.

There could be denser materials seeping out of the methanofer and flowing along the bottom of the lakes. This stuff could cause a crosscutting upper-level flow to go right over it.

Here's how to check:
Look for a large river coming in with and "submerged" stream cutting directly across it's path (I think there's an example in there somewhere.) If the "submerged" stream still has sharp boundaries, there are only a few possibilites:

1) There is still material flowing in the submerged steam, keeping it's edges sharp. (laminar flow of upper level stuff over it)
2) There is only material flowing in the submerged stream. We are looking at dried up lakes with residual trickles along the bottom. The "lighter" dark stuff in the lakes may not be fluid after all.

-Mike

[Stu]

Saved the best 'til last...

Looking at this...



... does anyone else think that looks like a part of the landscape has been eroded away? Does that look like a valley of some sort in the middle there? There's a lot of detail visible in there, pretty easy to visualise material flowing from top to bottom (as this image is oriented).

Could just be a result of the messing about enhancement process, but that gives me goosebumps...

[Olvegg]

Here's how to check:
Look for a large river coming in with and "submerged" stream cutting directly across it's path (I think there's an example in there somewhere.) If the "submerged" stream still has sharp boundaries, there are only a few possibilites:

1) There is still material flowing in the submerged steam, keeping it's edges sharp. (laminar flow of upper level stuff over it)
2) There is only material flowing in the submerged stream. We are looking at dried up lakes with residual trickles along the bottom. The "lighter" dark stuff in the lakes may not be fluid after all.

There's another possibility: these submerged channels are carved during dry seasons (in summer and autumn) when the sea level is much lower and rains are not so heavy.

I even suspect that there's a very complicated system of cross-flow between the great lakes. Look at this twisted delta for example. Light blue and green arrows show possible flow direction during dry season. Upper river flows into the lake, while second may either flow into lake or flow south. It depends on flow direction of "red" channel. Most intriguing is "green" part of river, wich turns 90 degree. It means that overall slope of broader channel is southward. During wet season (as today) methane may outflow from the lake and probably inflow into "Caspian Sea" (dark blue arrows).

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