Massive ice avalanches on Iapetus
Thursday, March 22, 2012 - 08:02
in Astronomy & Space
We've seen avalanches on Mars, but now scientists have found avalanches taking place on an unlikely place in our solar system: Saturns walnut-shaped, two-toned moon Iapetus. And these arent just run-of-the-mill avalanches: they are huge inundations of debris. These events are specifically known as long-runout landslides debris flows that have traveled unusually long distances. Just how these avalanches are occurring is somewhat of a mystery, according to Bill McKinnon from Washington University in St. Louis.