Published March 2010
| public
Journal Article
Racetrack and Bonnie Claire: southwestern US playa lakes as analogs for Ontario Lacus, Titan
- Creators
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Lorenz, Ralph D.
- Jackson, Brian
- Hayes, Alex
Abstract
We note the geomorphological and meteorological processes at Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, as analogs for those at Ontario Lacus on Titan. Although Ontario is ~50× larger, the planforms of the two features are nearly identical, both are extremely flat, and are in environments where infrequent rainfall occurs against a climate, where evaporation exceeds precipitation. While the famous moving rocks on the Racetrack Playa may be exceptional on the Earth, the lower gravity and thicker atmosphere may render wind-induced rock transport comparatively common on Titan. Nearby Bonnie Claire Playa also provides field insights into the interpretation of remote sensing data from Titan.
Additional Information
© 2009 Elsevier Ltd. Received 30 January 2009; revised 6 May 2009; accepted 25 May 2009. Available online 3 June 2009. RL acknowledges the partial support of the Cassini program. Field test of meteorological instrumentation at the playa has been supported by the NASA Applied Information Systems Research program and the assistance of David Ek, Wilderness Resources Coordinator at Death Valley National Park in conducting those in-situ measurements is acknowledged. BJK acknowledges a research grant from the Geological Society of America, and discretionary support from the Director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. We acknowledge the Cassini RADAR team whose efforts yielded the altimetric profile shown in Fig. 2. We thank Jason Barnes for assistance in the field, and for useful comments on a draft of this paper. Referees Stephane LeMouelic and Jani Radebaugh are thanked for useful comments.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 18435
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100525-140230051
- Cassini program
- NASA Applied Information Systems Research program
- Geological Society of America
- University of Arizona
- Created
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2010-06-01Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field