Evidence of Titan’s climate history from evaporite distribution

• Published in: Icarus
• Main Authors: Mackenzie, Shannon, Barnes, Jason, Sotin, Christophe, Soderblom, Jason, Le Mouélic, Stéphane, Rodriguez, Sebastien, Baines, Kevin, Buratti, Bonnie, Clark, Roger, Nicholson, Phillip, Mccord, Thomas
• Other Authors: Department of Physics Moscow,USA, University of Idaho Moscow, USA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA-California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences MIT, Cambridge (EAPS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique UMR 6112 (LPG), Université d'Angers (UA)-Université de Nantes - UFR des Sciences et des Techniques (UN UFR ST), Université de Nantes (UN)-Université de Nantes (UN)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation (AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Space Science and Engineering Center Madison (SSEC), University of Wisconsin-Madison, US Geological Survey Denver, United States Geological Survey Reston (USGS), Department of Astronomy Ithaca, Cornell University New York, This work was supported by NASA Cassini Data Analysts and Participating Scientists (CDAPS) Grant #NNX12AC28G to JWB. C.S. acknowledges support from the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Part of this work was conducted at JPL/Caltech under contract with NASA.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: Titan; Titan surface; Spectroscopy; Infrared observations; Geological processes; [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://u-paris.hal.science/hal-03702504; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2014.08.022

International audience Water–ice-poor, 5-μm-bright material on Saturn’s moon Titan has previously been geomorphologically identified as evaporitic. Here we present a global distribution of the occurrences of the 5-μm-bright spectral unit, identified with Cassini’s Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and examined with RADAR when possible. We explore the possibility that each of these occurrences are evaporite deposits. The 5-μm-bright material covers 1% of Titan’s surface and is not limited to the poles (the only regions with extensive, long-lived surface liquid). We find the greatest areal concentration to be in the equatorial basins Tui Regio and Hotei Regio. Our interpretations, based on the correlation between 5-μm-bright material and lakebeds, imply that there was enough liquid present at some time to create the observed 5-μm-bright material. We address the climate implications surrounding a lack of evaporitic material at the south polar basins: if the south pole basins were filled at some point in the past, then where is the evaporite?