Titan's Yin-yang equator: dunes and Xanadu

Details Titan's Yin-yang equator: dunes and Xanadu Titan's Yin-yang equator: dunes and Xanadu

Apr 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010ttt..work...29r&link_type=abstract

Through Time; A Workshop On Titan's Past, Present and Future, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, April 6th - 8th, 2010. Edited b

Mathematics

Logic

Scientific paper

Two of Titan's most enigmatic geomorphological features, the dark dunes and the bright Xanadu terrain, encircle Titan's equator. They may bracket the time frame for persistence of surface features on Titan, so understanding their ages is important for evaluating Titan's surface history. Dunes, covering nearly 20% of Titan's surface, are rarely cut by other features and are thus among the youngest on Titan. Pattern analysis reveals current wind strengths and directions and contains information about past wind and sediment supply conditions. In contrast, the rugged Xanadu terrain contains the highest density of likely impact craters of any region on Titan, and thus is among the oldest terrains. Some of the most well-evolved river drainages on Titan are present in Xanadu, and reflect widespread and persistent precipitation and erosion, begun in the distant past and extending perhaps to the present day. As we broaden our vision beyond the study of individual geomorphic features, we seek to find a spatial and temporal connection between them. Dunes abut Xanadu on nearly all sides, and the presence of Xanadu affects the pattern of dunes for many hundreds of kilometers. Yet if dunes are younger than Xanadu and active, it is not clear why they do not invade its topographically subdued margins - perhaps sands are actively removed from the margins of Xanadu by fluvial processes. These processes, however, do not create dune-carving drainages, blur the dune structures or form obvious sand sinks. Piecing together the related evolution of these morphologically disparate yet spatially linked features is critical for creating a viable relative geological time scale for Titan.

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