Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts
Name
sciadv.adn4192.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.41 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a5836b02b0a3ce00dc3e6d531668d89f
Author(s)
Palermo, Rose V
Ashton, Andrew D
Soderblom, Jason M
Birch, Samuel PD
Hayes, Alexander G
Perron, J Taylor
Date Issued
June 21, 2024
Journal
Science Advances
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Citation
Rose V. Palermo et al. ,Signatures of wave erosion in Titan’s coasts.Sci. Adv.10,eadn4192(2024).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Joint Program in Oceanography
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn4192
