Titan :
Sedimentology on a World of Hydrocarbons
Lorenz, Ralph1 (1)
Saturn's giant moon Titan ranks with Mars
as an exciting target for exploration and a place to learn from. Its thick
nitrogen/methane atmosphere gives it geological and meteorological processes
that yield a diverse and remarkably familiar landscape, albeit one made from
exotic materials.
The NASA/ESA Cassini mission is yielding
a torrent of remote-sensing data about this bizzare world, following up on the
in-situ exploration by the Huygens probe which landed on Titan in early 2005. A
picture is emerging of a world where ice boulders are rounded in violent
flash-flood streams of liquid methane; where seas of organic-rich sand form
giant longitudinal dunes, sculpted by tidally driven winds; and where high
latitudes are dotted with lakes of ethane. Our maps of Titan are growing in
detail, and are becoming populated with features that are named and understood
- the mountains of Xanadu, the sand seas of Belet and Shangri-La.
Titan is literally covered in organics
(over 20 different compounds have been identified) - even in the upper
atmosphere, 1000km above the surface, benzene and heavier hydrocarbons have
been detected. The formation of hydrocarbons and nitriles is driven by
photochemical destruction of methane in the atmosphere - the methane in turn
may be released via cryo-volcanos from an internal reservoir of methane
clathrate.
This talk will summarize the latest
findings from Cassini, and our rapidly-evolving understanding of the
sedimentological and other processes shaping Titan's surface. Plans for future
exploration of Titan, perhaps by balloon, will also be discussed.
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California