Evidence for Volcanic Craters on Saturn's Moon Titan 16 June 2020

Evidence for volcanic craters on Saturn's moon Titan 16 June 2020

craters may mean that volcanism has been relatively recently active on Titan or even continues today."

The Cassini mission revealed many landforms on Saturn's moon Titan that are like those found on Earth. Sand dunes, river valleys and lakes are all a result of actions by the atmosphere on the surface, driven by solar heating.

"We demonstrate that there is also evidence for internal heat, manifest at the surface as cryovolcanoes, made from melting the water ice crust into liquid water that erupts onto Titan's surface," Wood said. "These features are roughly round, with raised rims, and they sometimes overlap each other. They are consistent with the Credit: Brigham Young University shapes of other volcanic landforms on Earth and Mars formed by explosion, excavation and collapse." Volcano-like features seen in polar regions of He continued, "That these features are at the polar Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft regions, near the lakes of methane, may indicate could be evidence of explosive eruptions that may methane, nitrogen or some other volatile may continue today, according to a new paper by power them. The features appear relatively fresh, Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist meaning they could still be forming today." Charles A. Wood and coauthor Jani Radebaugh of Brigham Young University. More information: Charles A. Wood et al. Morphologic Evidence for Volcanic Craters near Morphological features such as nested collapses, Titan's North Polar Region May 28, 2020, Journal elevated ramparts, halos, and islands indicate that of Geophysical Research: Planets (2020). DOI: some of the abundant small depressions in the 10.1029/2019JE006036 north polar region of Titan are volcanic collapse craters, according to the study, titled "Morphologic Evidence for Volcanic Craters near Titan's North Polar Region," which appears in the Journal of Provided by Brigham Young University Geophysical Research: Planets. A few similar depressions occur near the south pole of Titan.

"The close association of the proposed volcanic craters with polar lakes is consistent with a volcanic origin through explosive eruptions followed by collapse, as either maars or calderas," Wood said. "The apparent freshness of some

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APA citation: Evidence for volcanic craters on Saturn's moon Titan (2020, June 16) retrieved 28 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2020-06-evidence-volcanic-craters-saturn-moon.html

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