Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

Saturn’s moon, Titan, is known to have rampart craters, central depressions surrounded by a positive‐relief deposit (the “rampart”). The formation of Titan’s rampart craters is not well understood but they have characteristics suggestive of an explosive volcanic origin. Brouwer et al. [2024] propose a new type of explosive source for Titan’s rampart craters, similar to that seen in terrestrial gas emission craters (GECs) found in permafrost zones on Earth.

The authors also investigate whether explosive volcanism as an origin of Titan’s rampart craters can help explain Titan’s methane mystery. Methane is an important component of Titan’s atmosphere, but how the methane is sustained is unclear: without some sort of replenishment mechanism, the current methane mass would be destroyed by photochemical reactions in 10–100 million years.

The study models the possible origins of Titan’s rampart craters and concludes that the gas explosion formation model can replicate the observed morphologies of the rampart craters; furthermore, if the explosions are produced by methane gas, the explosive formation of rampart craters could be a replenishment mechanism for Titan’s atmospheric methane. More research on the tensile strength of Titan‐relevant materials is required to establish whether a GEC‐like formation is likely to explain rampart crater formation, or whether another type of explosive volcanism occurs.

Citation: Brouwer, G. E., Schurmeier, L. S., & Fagents, S. A. (2024). An endogenic origin for Titan’s rampart craters: Assessment of explosion mechanisms. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 129, e2024JE008459. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JE008459

—Amanda Hendrix, Editor-in-Chief, JGR: Planets

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