Along this southern ridge at some point hard land meets softer land and the bulge or Ridge Line begins.
This whole ridge from north to south provides a lot of tantalizing visual evidence of difficult to explain processes that are shaping Pluto. After looking at this N/S Ridge Line, I have some observations to make but many more questions than answers to provide. |
The Ridge Line
There is a ridge line that runs from Pluto's north pole to its south. There are three sections There is the North, Equatorial and South Ridge Line sections which I've outlined. I'll begin at the south pole and work my way up through the equatorial and then the North section.
The south pole area of Pluto looks like someone drove a cement truck up to and dumped cement all over the old tholin covered surface. This south pole area experienced massive disturbances from shock waves delivered by impacts. In addition to the energy from shock waves the south pole at perihelion (closest to sun) receives the largest amount of UV radiation. On top of that, this area is where the icebergs are plowing into the cement like land and getting swallowed. |
Southern Ridge
The North Pole faces the sun when Pluto is at aphelion (furthest from Sun). The methane from the north sublimates (evaporates) and floats into varying layers of the atmosphere drifting south. While in the atmosphere and drifting southward, it accumulates on elevated ridges.
The snow capped Ridge Line's peaks at the south pole can be easily seen in this view. If you look closely at this image you can see the softened land running along each side of the rigid ridge line, I tried to place the arrows far enough out from the ridge so you can see the flowing looking land. It's most obvious at the lower left area of the ridge. This ridge is the border between soft and hard land ice. This is where the surface exposes the underground action that's taking place and the bulge in the land shows up as a snow capped ridge. Something confusing me here is the gray cement like stuff, On elevated places it is accumulating on the surface as an atmospheric scenario. Whereas lower elevations with red stuff inside like craters still have their red tholin skin but elevated areas show a light dusting as though this stuff condensed out of the atmosphere and is being laid down in layers relative to elevation. But in other areas its more confusing. |
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