Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts
The shorelines of Titan’s hydrocarbon seas trace flooded erosional landforms such as river valleys; however, it is unclear whether coastal erosion has subsequently altered these shorelines. Spacecraft observations and theoretical models suggest that wind may cause waves to form on Titan’s seas, pote...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Association for the Advancement of Science
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157678 |
| _version_ | 1824457987853385728 |
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| author | Palermo, Rose V Ashton, Andrew D Soderblom, Jason M Birch, Samuel PD Hayes, Alexander G Perron, J Taylor |
| author2 | Joint Program in Oceanography |
| author_facet | Joint Program in Oceanography Palermo, Rose V Ashton, Andrew D Soderblom, Jason M Birch, Samuel PD Hayes, Alexander G Perron, J Taylor |
| author_sort | Palermo, Rose V |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The shorelines of Titan’s hydrocarbon seas trace flooded erosional landforms such as river valleys; however, it is unclear whether coastal erosion has subsequently altered these shorelines. Spacecraft observations and theoretical models suggest that wind may cause waves to form on Titan’s seas, potentially driving coastal erosion, but the observational evidence of waves is indirect, and the processes affecting shoreline evolution on Titan remain unknown. No widely accepted framework exists for using shoreline morphology to quantitatively discern coastal erosion mechanisms, even on Earth, where the dominant mechanisms are known. We combine landscape evolution models with measurements of shoreline shape on Earth to characterize how different coastal erosion mechanisms affect shoreline morphology. Applying this framework to Titan, we find that the shorelines of Titan’s seas are most consistent with flooded landscapes that subsequently have been eroded by waves, rather than a uniform erosional process or no coastal erosion, particularly if wave growth saturates at fetch lengths of tens of kilometers. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:18:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/157678 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:18:44Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1576782024-12-23T05:17:57Z Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts Palermo, Rose V Ashton, Andrew D Soderblom, Jason M Birch, Samuel PD Hayes, Alexander G Perron, J Taylor Joint Program in Oceanography Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences The shorelines of Titan’s hydrocarbon seas trace flooded erosional landforms such as river valleys; however, it is unclear whether coastal erosion has subsequently altered these shorelines. Spacecraft observations and theoretical models suggest that wind may cause waves to form on Titan’s seas, potentially driving coastal erosion, but the observational evidence of waves is indirect, and the processes affecting shoreline evolution on Titan remain unknown. No widely accepted framework exists for using shoreline morphology to quantitatively discern coastal erosion mechanisms, even on Earth, where the dominant mechanisms are known. We combine landscape evolution models with measurements of shoreline shape on Earth to characterize how different coastal erosion mechanisms affect shoreline morphology. Applying this framework to Titan, we find that the shorelines of Titan’s seas are most consistent with flooded landscapes that subsequently have been eroded by waves, rather than a uniform erosional process or no coastal erosion, particularly if wave growth saturates at fetch lengths of tens of kilometers. 2024-11-26T15:18:34Z 2024-11-26T15:18:34Z 2024-06-21 2024-11-26T14:54:44Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157678 Rose V. Palermo et al. ,Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts.Sci. Adv.10,eadn4192(2024). en 10.1126/sciadv.adn4192 Science Advances Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| spellingShingle | Palermo, Rose V Ashton, Andrew D Soderblom, Jason M Birch, Samuel PD Hayes, Alexander G Perron, J Taylor Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts |
| title | Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts |
| title_full | Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts |
| title_fullStr | Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts |
| title_short | Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts |
| title_sort | signatures of wave erosion in titan s coasts |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157678 |
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