Organic sedimentary deposits in Titan's dry lakebeds: Probable evaporite

We report the discovery of organic sedimentary deposits at the bottom of dry lakebeds near Titan's north pole in observations from the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). We show evidence that the deposits are evaporitic, making Titan just the third known planetary body wit...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Icarus
Main Authors: Barnes, Jason W., Bow, Jacob, Schwartz, Jacob, Brown, Robert H., Soderblom, Jason M., Hayes, Alexander G., Vixie, Graham, Le Mouélic, Stéphane, Rodriguez, Sebastien, Sotin, Christophe, Jaumann, Ralf, Stephan, Katrin, Soderblom, Laurence A., Clark, Roger N., Buratti, Bonnie J., Baines, Kevin H., Nicholson, Philip D.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Elsevier 2011
Subjects:
Titan
North Pole
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2011.08.022
Description
Summary:We report the discovery of organic sedimentary deposits at the bottom of dry lakebeds near Titan's north pole in observations from the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). We show evidence that the deposits are evaporitic, making Titan just the third known planetary body with evaporitic processes after Earth and Mars, and is the first that uses a solvent other than water. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. Received 22 February 2011; revised 1 July 2011; Accepted 19 August 2011. Available online 1 September 2011. The authors acknowledge support from the Cassini Project and helpful discussions with Ralph D. Lorenz and Christopher P. McKay.

Similar Items