Ice avalanches found on Iapetus

Posted on Wednesday, 1 August, 2012 | Comment icon

8 comments | News tip by: Waspie_Dwarf

Image credit: NASA

Huge and destructive landslides have been discovered on Iapetus, one of the moons of Saturn.

These huge landslides can travel far further than similar landslides on Earth, up to 30 times the distance that the material has fallen. Known as 'long-runout landslides', the phenomenon has been a matter of great debate among scientists.

"The landslides on Iapetus are a planet-scale experiment that we cannot do in a laboratory or observe on Earth," said Kelsi Singer of Washington University. "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."

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.

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Source: BBC News

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Recent comments on this story

#1 Posted by OverSword on 1 August, 2012, 14:28

I would guess that these extended slides are not caused by the same thing that they speculate causes them on Terra and Mars. Admitedly I know nothing about this but intuition makes me think that the immense gravitational forces that the squat moon is subject to is the bigger influence than heating. Iapetus is the moon that most fascinates me in the solar system with its strange shape, the rise that encircles it directly on its equator, the drastic difference in reflectivity that seems to make a ying and yang symbol, and if I recall nearly identical craters equadistant from each other longitu... [More]

#2 Posted by spud the mackem on 1 August, 2012, 20:33

I guess thet they travel 30 times as far there is because they have no air resistance to slow them down.

#3 Posted by Abramelin on 4 August, 2012, 8:38

The Iapetus moon sure is an odd thing, but some are getting totally crazy about it, lol: .

#4 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf on 4 August, 2012, 12:08

That's a few wasted minutes of my life I'll never get back. I'm sure that total drivel must have killed a few of my brain cells. Every time we discover something new in the universe some one makes a baseless claim that it is proof of ancient alien civilisations. All it is actually proof of is the gullibility of mankind.

#5 Posted by Abramelin on 4 August, 2012, 20:23

Wasted minutes? I thought it was hilarious.

#6 Posted by Waspie_Dwarf on 5 August, 2012, 1:15

If I want to suffer from loss of brain cells and listening to half-baked ideas I'll go to the pub. If I want to read crazy theories about aliens I'll go to Extraterrestrial Life forum. I came here because I wanted to read about science and astronomy.

#7 Posted by Abramelin on 5 August, 2012, 3:55

Must be fun to have a drink with you in the pub...

#8 Posted by BaneSilvermoon on 11 August, 2012, 2:19

Clearly there's soul sand under the ice.

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