Evidence of Titan’s climate history from evaporite distribution
International audience Water-ice-poor, 5-lm-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-lm-bright spectral unit, identified with Cassini's Visual Infrared Mapping S...
Published in: | Icarus |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hal-univ-paris.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03657812 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2014.08.022 |
Summary: | International audience Water-ice-poor, 5-lm-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-lm-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-lm-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-lm-bright material and lakebeds, imply that there was enough liquid present at some time to create the observed 5-lm-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? |
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