Saturn moon Iapetus' huge landslides stir intrigue

Interesting stuff from one of Saturn's lesser known moons.

Saturn's moon Iapetus frequently plays host to a huge type of landslide or avalanche that is rare elsewhere in the Solar System, scientists report. Sturzstroms or "long-runout landslides" move faster and farther than geological models predict they should. They have been seen on Earth and Mars, but there is debate about their causes. Now, images from the Cassini space mission, reported in Nature Geoscience, suggest that heating of icy surfaces helps the landslides keep going. On Earth, landslides typically travel a horizontal distance that is less than twice the distance that the material has fallen.

Long-runout landslides, by contrast, can travel as much as 30 times the vertical falling distance. A great many mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, ranging from simple sliding on ice to the sound waves from the slide making rock and debris behave more like a fluid. But there is little consensus on which of these theories, if any, is correct.

It is such a funny looking moon.



We really need to send a fleet of probes out to all these intriguing satellites to work out what the hell is going on.

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


I find this moon facinating. I read somewhere that this also could be a massive spacecraft similar to Phobos if you believe in that sort of thing. The features are very strange. The high ridge that runs all the way around the moon. The huge almost circular shape on it's surface. Not unlike the Death Star eh? And this has been around longer that Star Wars.

The surface also looks metallic, but heavily pitted, but the dark side seems to be smooth. A very mysterious moon indeed.

Very interesting.

reply to post by Necro69uk


Interesting and imaginative theory.

This is the theory offered by NASA for the different colouration.

NASA scientists now believe that the dark material is lag (residue) from the sublimation (evaporation) of water ice on the surface of Iapetus,[18][22] possibly darkened further upon exposure to sunlight. Because of its slow rotation of 79 days (equal to its revolution and the longest in the Saturnian system), Iapetus would have had the warmest daytime surface temperature and coldest nighttime temperature in the Saturnian system even before the development of the color contrast; near the equator, heat absorption by the dark material results in a daytime temperatures of 129 K in the dark Cassini Regio compared to 113 K in the bright regions.

The moons of out system are as interesting if not more so than the planet guardians they orbit.

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


I couldn't agree more. The moons in our system are a strange bunch indeed. They could do with more observation as the characteristics they portray are sometimes very baffling.

Phobos is one of my favourites. I am sure that is hiding something. Very odd moon.

reply to post by Necro69uk


These avalanches that occur on Iapetus are helping scientists understand how they work back here on Earth.

"The landslides on Iapetus are a planet-scale experiment that we cannot do in a laboratory or observe on Earth," Kelsi Singer, a graduate student in earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St Louis, said. "They give us examples of giant landslides in ice, instead of rock, with a different gravity, and no atmosphere. So any theory of long runout landslides on Earth must also work for avalanches on Iapetus."

www.theregister.co.uk...

Lookin at the pic of Iapetus one has to wonder how it comes that so many of the craters on the surface has six corners!?

That moon is pretty interesting...

reply to post by A-star


That is a good point. It must be those Hexagon based alien lifeforms.

Originally posted by A-star
Lookin at the pic of Iapetus one has to wonder how it comes that so many of the craters on the surface has six corners!?

That moon is pretty interesting...

Not just that, but in the center of the majority of them there is also something else to see. Go to the image link posted, click on it and then click again to zoom in. They forgot to airbrush a lot of this stuff out!!!

Might want to save a copy of the photo before the photoshopping begins...

reply to post by visualmiscreant


Just had a look. My skeptics eye could not see anything. What are you referring to?

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk
reply to post by A-star

 

That is a good point. It must be those Hexagon based alien lifeforms.

Who was talking about lifeforms? It is just strange that Iapetus shows a large patern of hexagon craters when other moons that we have documented dont, that in itself would motivate a closer look at that place.

It looks like a giant nutshell.

Where are the galactic squirrels.

Cool story and thank you for the read.

reply to post by A-star


I was just mucking about A, perhaps my smiley was not the correct choice. Yeh like I said before, we need to get a fleet out there at all these planets and their moons.

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


I'm just seeing something in the center of each of the craters. A point within a circle, so to speak. I'm gonna download the photo and look closer...

I'm not saying it's anything to freak out over; just interesting...

Something kept bothering me about this photo, and I've finally figured out what it is. This is not a theory I'm proposing; it's just that we have a meteorite that looks a lot like this. I haven't decided yet to post pictures of it, because it belongs to my wife (also a member). She witnessed the fall in California many years ago, collected it, and has never shown it to many people at all.

This meteorite landed on the beach in the sand, and the top was completely exposed. The bottom was buried of course, and they cooled at different rates. This left a ring around the entire object similar to the one on Iapetus. I wonder if somehow when this moon was formed, if it didn't cool faster on one side?

I've never heard another explanation of this ring, except of course that it's the seal around a prison door, which holds the fallen angels that will be released on mankind during end-times...

Originally posted by liejunkie01

It looks like a giant nutshell.

Where are the galactic squirrels.

Cool story and thank you for the read.

There are some small metal balls that are in a museum in South Africa. One of them is identicle to Iapetus.

Yes, a raised "wall" that runs around the circumference of the metal ball AND, a hexangle "pit of dent" in the upper half of the ball.

This is not a coincedence, there has to be a connection. Also all of the above details are mentioned at Richard C. Hoagland' web site, just goggle Iapetus. Also Dr. Joseph P. Farrell mentions this similarity in his book "The Cosmic War", check out both of them.

reply to post by downunderET

This is not a coincedence, there has to be a connection. Also all of the above details are mentioned at Richard C. Hoagland' web site, just goggle Iapetus. Also Dr. Joseph P. Farrell mentions this similarity in his book "The Cosmic War", check out both of them.

Absolutely amazing stuff here about Iapetus...

Moon with a View

reply to post by visualmiscreant


Nice website. A lot of background on the discovery of Iapetus ans some beautiful shots.

Good find and has been added to my favorites.

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk
reply to post by visualmiscreant

 

Nice website. A lot of background on the discovery of Iapetus ans some beautiful shots.

Good find and has been added to my favorites.

The thanks really goes to downunderET.

I kinda got sleepy reading so much, and I had to give it a break. I'm headed back there some time today though. I think my question was answered about Iapetus being cooled faster on one side than the other. This ridge is 12 miles high! I've never studied this moon, but I have seen references to it before; on a banned members website I believe. Perhaps one of the interviews with him, I'm not sure.

Thanks for the thread, it's led me to answers I didn't even have questions for. You never know what a fire a few sparks can create...

reply to post by visualmiscreant


I know that ridge is ridiculous. Could be a destination for future space moon climbers....In about 300 at the rate we are going. Get on with it NASA/ESA/Chinese/Indians and Russia! And do it in a nice co-operative way.