Planet Four Talk

Plumes from ridge

  • Keirley by Keirley

    The ridge in the centre of the image seems to harbour plume vents. Could the ridges be a cause of the plumes or vice versa?

    The plumes all seem to be blowing in the same direction. Could that indicate that the plumes were all active during the same period of time or that the wind always blows in the same direction at this location?

    Posted

  • Portyankina by Portyankina scientist

    Hi Keirley!

    This image is really informative! You are right with your first assumption: fans and troughs are connected (those are troughs or channels, not ridges, they are negative topography). Fans tend to appear on the sides of troughs, while widening and lengthening them. In their turn, troughs promote fan creation because their inclined sides catch more solar light than flat surface and provide that energy for the fan eruptions.

    For the second question: exactly to distinguish those two cases we are asking people to help us! We hopefully have repeatedly imaged this place and will see from other images if the wind stays same.

    Thank you for helping!
    Anya

    Posted