conversationAugust 27, 2021 12:01:26 IST
When we talk about amazing geological features, we often limit ourselves to those on Earth. But as a geologist, I think it’s strange. There are so many structures in the other world that can be exciting and inspiring and give us a perspective on the processes of our planet.
Here are the five geological structures of the solar system (excluding Earth) that I was most impressed with, in no particular order.
The most magnificent canyon
I omitted the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons Being on Mars, it can include the most spectacular canyons on the planet. Valles Marineris.. With a length of 3,000 km, a width of several hundred km, and a depth of 8 km, this is ideal when viewed from space. If you’re lucky enough to stand on one rim, the other rim will go far beyond the horizon.
The Valles Marineris is displayed in a color-coded topographic map as from a height of 5,000 km above the surface (left) and imaged by Esa’s Mars Express high-resolution stereo camera (right). Google Earth and NASA / USGS / ESA / DLR / FU Berlin (G. New Kum)
It is probably an adjacent volcanic area ( Tharsis) Began to swell upwards, but expanded and deepened by a series of catastrophic floods that culminated over 3 billion years ago.
Venus Fold Mountain
I will learn more about Venus in the 2030s Two NASA missions When One from ESA (European Space Agency) arrival. Venus is about the same size, mass, and density as Earth, Geologist solves a puzzle Why it lacks earth-style plate tectonics, and why it does not (or does) have relatively active volcanic activity. How do planets release heat?
Folding mountain of Ovda Regio on Venus. The insert is a similar view of some of the Applachians in central Pennsylvania. NASA / JPL
I think it’s encouraging to be familiar with at least some aspects of Venus’ geology.For example, at the northern end of the highlands Ovda Regio It looks surprisingly similar, like the “folded mountains” on Earth, except that there are no rivers that flow through eroded fold-like patterns. Appalachian MountainsIs the result of Intercontinental collision..
Blast Mercury
The following example is a bit cheating because it is one of the largest collision basins in the solar system and is also an explosive volcano in it. Mercury diameter 1,550km Caloris basin Formed by a large asteroid collision about 3.5 billion years ago, its floor was flooded with lava shortly thereafter.
Right: Most of Mercury’s Caloris Planitia, whose floor is covered with dull orange lava. The bright orange patch is the wreckage of an explosive eruption. Bottom left: Close-up inside a red box of explosive volcanic deposits. Upper left: Details inside the vent. NASA / JHUAPL / CIW
After a while, a series of explosive eruptions blasted a kilometer-deep hole through the solidified lava near the edge of the basin where the lava cap was the thinnest. These sprayed volcanic ash particles are released over a range of tens of kilometers. One such deposit, named Agwo Facula, surrounds the explosive vent I chose as an example.
Explosive eruptions are caused by the force of expanding gas, Amazing discoveries of MercuryIts proximity to the sun was previously expected to starve such volatiles – the heat would have boiled them. Scientists suspect that there were actually some explosive eruptions.This is a volatile substance that forms a gas (its composition is ESA BepiColombo The mission will begin work in 2026) was repeatedly available on Mercury’s magma.
The highest cliff?
In soil and vegetation-rich areas of the globe, cliffs provide maximum exposure of clean rocks.Nevertheless Dangerous to approach, They reveal an uninterrupted cross section of the rock and are ideal for fossil hunting.Geologists love them so much that I give you a height of 7 kilometers Verona Rupes..This is a characteristic of Uranus’s small moon Miranda This is often referred to as the “highest cliff in the solar system.” Recent NASA website.. It even says that if you inadvertently stop rolling from the top, it will take 12 minutes to fall down.
The Verona Rupes is about 50 km long and a few kilometers high, but it’s not really that cliff-like, as was seen on Voyager 2 during the 1986 flyby. NASA / JPL
This is nonsense, as the Verona Rupes is far from vertical.The only image we have is Voyager 2, Captured during the Uranus flyby in 1986. It is undeniably impressive, and arguably a geological fault in which one block of Miranda’s ice crust (the outermost “shell” of the planet) has moved downwards relative to the adjacent block.
However, the tilt of the view is deceptive and it is impossible to see the steep slope of the face. Probably tilted below 45 degrees. If you stumble on, I don’t think you’ll even slip down.The face looks very smooth at best, but it’s a low resolution image we have, but at Miranda’s -170 ° C daytime temperature, the water ice High friction It is not slippery.
Titan’s drowned coastline
In my last example, I was happy to choose Pluto almost anywhere, but instead chose the unforgettable Earth-like coastline of Saturn’s largest moon. Giant.. Here, in a large depression in the “rock” of Titan’s water ice, there is a sea of liquid methane with the following name: Ligeia sea..
Titan’s Ligeia Sea. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASI / Cornell-
As the sea level rose, the valley carved by the river of methane flowing into the sea was clearly flooded.This indented coastline is strongly reminiscent of the Omani coastline. Musandam Peninsula, South side of the Strait of Hormuz. There, the local crust is distorted downwards due to an ongoing collision between mainland Arabia and mainland Asia. Did the same thing happen with Titan? I don’t know yet, but how the coastal terrain around the Ligeia Mare changes suggests to me that the drowned valley is more than a simple result of rising liquid levels. Left: Part of the Ligeia Mare in Titan. It shows a coastline with a valley drowning in the sea of liquid methane. Right: Musandam Peninsula, Arabia. Coastal valleys are also drowned, but surrounded by saltwater seas.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASI / Cornell and Expedition 63, International Space Station (ISS)
Rocks and liquid water on Earth, Titan’s frigid water-ice and liquid methane-it makes little difference. Since their interactions are the same, we can see that geology is repeated in different worlds.
David Rosalie, Professor of Planetary Earth Sciences, Open University
This article will be republished from conversation Under a Creative Commons license.read Original work..
These five impressive geological structures of our solar system will blow your mind-Technology News, Firstpost
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