TITAN TRANSMOGRIFIED. C. A. Wood, Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tuc- Son, AZ 85719-2395; [email protected]
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50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2132) 3032.pdf TITAN TRANSMOGRIFIED. C. A. Wood, Planetary Science Institute, 1700 East Fort Lowell, Suite 106, Tuc- son, AZ 85719-2395; [email protected] Titan’s Global Crustal Thickening Event: Based on volume scattering [6] and have only minor coatings by a variety of estimates of the age of events affecting its other materials. The proposed origin of mountains by atmosphere, Hörst [1] deduced that Titan underwent a contraction [7] would occur after the GCTE began fundamental transformation about 500 m.y. ago. No when the icy crust began to thicken. explanation for what that event could have been; I pro- Titan’s mountains are old; is it possible that Titan’s pose that it was a rapid Global Crustal Thickening mountain-forming era was limited to a short period Event (GCTE) predicted by a geophysical model of about 500 m.y. ago as the crust was thickening from a Titan’s internal evolution. Tobie, Lunine & Sotin (TLS weak 10 km until it became too thick and strong for [2]) predicted that ~500 m.y. ago the onset of convec- mountain formation? Can mountains form today? tion led to rapid cooling of the interior and consequent Blandlands. The most pervasive geologic unit on rapid thickening of the crust from ~10 km to more than Titan appears as nearly featureless expanses, concen- 50 km. I propose that this catastrophic event occurred, trated in temperate regions [8]. These plains were orig- completely resetting Titan’s geologic processes, trans- inally called blandlands, but now are classified as Un- forming its surface from a smooth icy ball into what differentiated Plains. IR and microwave measurments evolved to become the landscape we see today. In this demonstrate that blandlands surfaces are organic-rich, scenario, before the GCTE the crust was too thin and probably deposited by aeolian processes [8]. The ques- weak to preserve mountains, impact craters and other tion is how deep do these deposits extend and what is topographic excesses that formed. Massive eruptions beneath them? Depth can be probed by looking at im- of cryomagmas (flood basalt equivalents) through Ti- pact crater ejecta. Soi, the only crater totally surround- tan’s thin crust created a smooth icy world that self- ed by blandlands, has only an icy rim [9], whereas rims repaired whenever deformed by crater or mountain of other craters contain water ice and organics [9]. Soi formation. Titan’s recorded geologic history began overwhelming excavated crustal water ice, suggesting only after the GCTE when a thick crust began to pre- that blandland organic-rich deposits need only be thick serve newly created landforms. Titan’s surface age [3, enough to spectrally hide the underlying ice. 4], derived from crater counts, dates the GCTE to According to the GCTE proposal, eruptions of thin about 0.5 b.y. ago. Note that that uncertainty in the sheets of icy water magmas were frequent and wide- timing of crustal thickening in the TLS model, in spread before about 500 m.y. ago. They cooled to be- Hörst’s estimates of when the atmosphere changed, come relatively smooth and featureless pervasive and in crater count ages mean 500 m.y. is an approxi- plains. The defining characteristics of landlands - be- mate date rather than being exact. ing widespread and nearly featureless - is explained if New interpretations: Traditionally, Titan’s young pre-GCTE icy sheets underlie them. Presumably these surface age was interpreted to mean that most of the icy plains have since been covered by aeolian and at- thousands of impact craters and other features that mospheric deposits tens of meters to a few km thick. must have formed over the last 4.5 billion years were Lopes et al [8] doubt that blandlands are icy depos- erased by a variety of geologic and atmospheric pro- its because spectral and radar data do not match ice. cesses such as fluvial erosion, mass wasting, infill by However, the wavelengths used probe only the top wind-blown sand and deposition of material from the microns to meters. I propose that blandlands consist of atmosphere. Accepting the TLS/GCTE model leads to two distinct layers: underlying relatively flat and ex- a totally different interpretation of Titan’s youthful tensive ice layers, and a surface coating of organic surface age: the present landscape formed entirely dur- sediments meters to a kilometer thick. Multi-wave- ing the last 0.5 b.y. and little remains of the previous 4 length data characterize the top coating but not the b.y. old surface. Titan’s older terrains were not cata- underlying ice layers. Radar altimetry and photogeolo- strophically erased at one time, they were quickly re- gy confirm that the sedimentary coating rests on an moved one by one as they formed. expansive, featureless plain. Lopes et al [8] deduce that Landform formation after the GCTE: blandlands are younger than impact craters and laby- Mountains. Mountains are stratigraphically Titan’s rinths because blandlands embay them. Again, the sed- oldest landform [5] and according to this new interpre- imentary layer capping blandlands is created by differ- tation could only be preserved after the GCTE when ent processes and at different times from the underly- the crust thickened enough to support them. Their for- ing flat ice plains. Craters, with their icy rims, excavat- mation occurred before significant non-ice material ed into the lower blandlands plains, and later may have accumulated, hence mountains are made largely of ice, been embayed by the sedimentary layer, including de- as indicated by spectral data and their high degree of posits on the floors of craters with intact rims. 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2132) 3032.pdf An intriguing question is why blandlands are not to the atmospheric escape of hydrogen through photol- everywhere on Titan, since presumably at the end of ysis. This means that methane, presumably from Ti- the GCTE the entire surface was made of smooth ice tan’s interior, must be replenished, but no ongoing flows. The existence of patches of blandlands at the mechanism has been confirmed. The GCTE interpreta- equator and in polar regions suggests that originally tion suggests another explanation. During 4 billion smooth plains were global but have been covered or years of nearly continuous volcanism, huge quantities erased by dunes and mountains near the equator, and of methane escaped from the interior into the atmos- seas and labyrinths in polar regions. Dunes are limited phere. This would explain the mystery of how Titan’s to equatorial areas due to drying atmospheric circula- atmosphere today can hold 5% methane when that tion patterns [10]. Radar altimetry suggests that some amount should chemically breakdown and disappear dunes rest on remarkably smooth surfaces [11]. within about 30 million years [19]. Perhaps 5% is all Labyrinths are high plateaux deeply incised by ero- that remains from nearly continuous pre-GCTE erup- sion, and composed of low-dielectric constant organic tions. If the present methane abundance has a 30 m.y. materials spectrally similar to blandlands [12]; most lifetime, we can crudely estimate that the methane occur near polar regions. Such areas are also where abundance at the time of the GCTE 500 my ago was rainfall, surface (lakes) and subsurface (aquifers) liq- 500/30 = ~ 15-20 times as much as today. If this were uids are abundant, enhancing dissolution and erosion so, and methane replenishment is insignificant today, of organic terrains leading to karstic labyrinth for- in the next few tens of millions of years all of the at- mation [13]. Pre-GCTE icy smooth plains were modi- mospheric methane will be removed and Titan will dry fied where atmospheric and geologic processes are up and have a nearly pure nitrogen atmosphere [20]. most intense (equatorial and polar regions, respective- Comments: If the GCTE occurred all calculated ly); they remain visible as blandlands where there is no erosion, hydrocarbon production, and similar process effective transformation processes. rates are too low, perhaps by an order of magnitude. Volcanism. Volcanism would have been wide- Titan may be experiencing geologically rapid land- spread and nearly continuous before the GCTE thick- scape changes. The speculative GCTE was the most ened the crust and cut off easy access of cryomagma important event in titan’s history, if it occurred. Vari- plumes and impact-created conduits to Titan’s surface. ous lines of evidence compiled by Hörst [1] identified There is little evidence for post-GCTE volcanism and that at about 500 m.y. ago a fundamental change af- what there is has produced mountainous cones and fected Titan. If not the GCTE, what? relatively thick flows (e.g. Sotra Patera, Doom Mons References: [1] Hörst, S. M. (2017) JGR: Planets, and Mohini Fluctus) [14]. A second style of likely vol- 122, 432-482. [2] Tobie, G. et al. (2006) Nature 440, canism occurs as hundreds of 5-20 km wide deep pits 61-64. [3] Wood, C. A. et al, (2010) Icarus 206, 334- near the North Pole [15]. These pits have elevated rims 344. [4] Neish, C. D. & Lorenz, R. D. (2012) Planet. and a series of floors at different levels, unlike terres- Space Sci. 60, 26–33. 221. [5] Lopes, R. M. C. et al. trial karstic sinkholes (cf. [16]) but characteristic of (2010) Icarus 205, 540-558. [6] Janssen, M. A. et al. explosions and collapses associated with formation of (2016) Icarus 270, 443-459. [7] Liu, Z. Y. –C. et al. calderas and maars on Earth, Venus, Mars and Io. (2016) Icarus 270, 14-29.