Titan's contractions give birth to mountains

There is more than one way for a mountain to form. On Earth, most mountains were formed when giant continental plates collided with each other, or when one plate slid under another and pushed up the layers of rock above * another method - when parts of the crust fold and shrink

As published last Thursday (August 13) in the journal Science, decoding data from the Cassini spacecraft indicates the formation of mountains on the surface of Titan.

There is more than one way for a mountain to form. On Earth, most mountains were formed when giant continental plates collided with each other, or when one plate slid under another and pushed up the overlying rock layers.

Another pathway for mountain formation is when parts of the Earth's crust crinkle and shrink as the molten material beneath them collapses. This is how the Zagros Mountains in Iran were formed.
The mountains on the surface of Saturn's giant moon, Titan, probably formed the same way. Scientists have analyzed radar images taken by Cassini (Cassini is a spacecraft sent by NASA and the European Space Agency to study the planet Saturn and its moons), from which it is possible to see, according to them, how the three ridges in the attached image, first published yesterday, were formed. The scientists explain that the three ridges were formed when heat from the interior of the moon Titan melted parts of the frozen ocean, which is made of water and ammonia, and which is immediately below the surface of the earth. When the ice turned to liquid, the crust above it sank and crinkled, just like a giant plum, and this is how the mountains were formed. In the next issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, the scientists report that Titan may be the only moon in the solar system where the mechanism described here is at work.

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