Titan's Geology as Viewed by the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper

Details Titan's Geology as Viewed by the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper Titan's Geology as Viewed by the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agusm.p44a..02l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2007, abstract #P44A-02

Mathematics

Logic

6281 Titan

Scientific paper

Cassini's Titan Radar Mapper has imaged the surface of Titan on 8 flybys to date, collecting Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data at spatial resolution ranging from about 300 m to about 2 km. These radar images reveal that Titan's surface has been modified by both endogenic (volcanism, tectonism) and exogenic (impact cratering, erosion) processes, with no process dominating in an obvious way. Although less than 15 % of the surface of Titan has been imaged to date using SAR, the acquired swaths are distributed over a wide latitudinal and longitudinal range, enabling some conclusions to be drawn about the global distribution of processes. Cryovolcanic units have been identified in SAR images mostly at mid-latitudes (40-60 N), these include the construct Ganesa Macula, several calderas with associated flows, and large cryovolcanic flows. Flybys over high northern latitudes have shown lacustrine features, the distribution of these features is consistent with colder temperatures and more precipitation at high latitudes. Some of the depressions filled by the lakes may be volcanic calderas, but a thermokarstic origin is also possible (Mitchell et al., Lunar Planet Sci. Conf. XXXVIII, 2007). Ridges and mountains that are interpreted to be of tectonic origin have been seen mostly at low latitudes (Radebaugh et al., Lunar Planet Sci. Conf. XXXVIII, 2007), while drainage channels appear common at all latitudes (Lorenz et al., Plan. Space Sci., submitted). Fields of dunes (Titan's "sand seas") are mostly equatorial, but a few isolated patches of dunes extend as far north as ~60 degrees. The distribution and orientation of dunes is as expected from Titan's winds (Lorenz et al., 2006, Science 312; Radebaugh et al., Icarus, submitted). Erosion by fluvial processes is likely to have occurred on a global scale. The small number of definitive impact craters suggests that these geologic processes are erasing or burying the majority of impacts. Future data will allow us to further constrain the distribution of tectonism and volcanism, providing valuable input for models of Titan's interior.

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