July 5th 2016
Here is a recently released image by NASA that has some interesting features.
The land ice to the far right shows how small jagged land surface goose bumps have collected gray material on the raised bumps.
This means the gray material is sublimating off SP's nitrogen fluid and is carried in the atmosphere inland. The further inland the gray stuff travels the less accumulation you see.
Closer to the fluid's source, the gray material collects very heavily on the land ice filling the spaces between the goose bumps creating larger globs. The thicker the gray material accumulates the more it appears to dissolve the land ice such that the jagged goose bumps become more smooth and large appearing more like large globs then finally the globs simply migrate into the fluid and become part of it.
This seems to indicate the gray fluid has a dissolving effect on the land ice from above and below.
Another interesting feature is the white methane capped edges where the snow accumulates on the northward facing side of the small bumps and raised peaks.
This scene has 3 large pits. The pit at the top right has very little gray stuff with well defined edges. The middle pit has a larger accumulation of gray material around its edges and the edge closest to SP fluid is nearly dissolved away. The bottom pit has the wall facing SP's fluid completely dissolved and is being eroded flat and will eventually collapse down to the surface level of SP.
This means the gray material is sublimating off SP's nitrogen fluid and is carried in the atmosphere inland. The further inland the gray stuff travels the less accumulation you see.
Closer to the fluid's source, the gray material collects very heavily on the land ice filling the spaces between the goose bumps creating larger globs. The thicker the gray material accumulates the more it appears to dissolve the land ice such that the jagged goose bumps become more smooth and large appearing more like large globs then finally the globs simply migrate into the fluid and become part of it.
This seems to indicate the gray fluid has a dissolving effect on the land ice from above and below.
Another interesting feature is the white methane capped edges where the snow accumulates on the northward facing side of the small bumps and raised peaks.
This scene has 3 large pits. The pit at the top right has very little gray stuff with well defined edges. The middle pit has a larger accumulation of gray material around its edges and the edge closest to SP fluid is nearly dissolved away. The bottom pit has the wall facing SP's fluid completely dissolved and is being eroded flat and will eventually collapse down to the surface level of SP.
You can clearly see four processes occurring in the close up image below.
Small goose bumps with gray stuff on land ice facing west toward SP.
White methane accumulating and pointing north.
Large globs dissolving land ice into fluid.
Fluid sublimating into atmosphere via small sublimation cups.
This image also seems to infer that the fluid is seeping up from below the land ice as you can see down into the deep pits where gray material has sublimation cups deep inside an isolated hole (top right). These deep holes are land locked so the only way into them appears to be from under the surface. Or the gray stuff falls out of the atmosphere down into the holes but since it is only seen closest to the source and not further inland, I think it's welling up from below.
This also suggest to me that the fluid on SP where we see convection cell troughs is not very deep but has instead basically softened and dissolved the land ice smoothing it out and allowing it to drop down just below the surface of the fluid. This is likely why we can clearly see convection cell troughs in the north of SP but nothing at Pitts' Pits in the south.
Small goose bumps with gray stuff on land ice facing west toward SP.
White methane accumulating and pointing north.
Large globs dissolving land ice into fluid.
Fluid sublimating into atmosphere via small sublimation cups.
This image also seems to infer that the fluid is seeping up from below the land ice as you can see down into the deep pits where gray material has sublimation cups deep inside an isolated hole (top right). These deep holes are land locked so the only way into them appears to be from under the surface. Or the gray stuff falls out of the atmosphere down into the holes but since it is only seen closest to the source and not further inland, I think it's welling up from below.
This also suggest to me that the fluid on SP where we see convection cell troughs is not very deep but has instead basically softened and dissolved the land ice smoothing it out and allowing it to drop down just below the surface of the fluid. This is likely why we can clearly see convection cell troughs in the north of SP but nothing at Pitts' Pits in the south.
I've been asking myself, "How can the wetlands seemingly have NO impacts with all those jagged scarped peaks?"
It occurred to me, the best place to find evidence of impacts within the wetlands is right along the edge where red tholin covered land ice meets fluid gray ice.
The below image is from the south eastern edge of SP (bottom of the wetlands). The brownish red land ice clearly shows impacts but the gray fluid requires a little imagination (not much) in order to see the impacts that are filling in with gray fluid which is dissolving the land ice.
Taking everything I've learned into account, this is how I see the area east of SP.
The gray fluid on SP has a dissolving effect on the land ice it softens the ice turning it into a cold putty like viscus substance.
There is warmer more liquid-ish fluid below the surface, as it rises it hits cold cold temperatures creating mud dauber like holes where there are sublimation pits very similar to the sublimation cups seen all over the surface of SP.
The primary difference between these sublimation cups and the ones on SP is these have raised rims. I suspect they are further from their source of heat therefore when these bubbles of sublimating nitrogen rise to the surface and pop they leave a rim in the cold viscus fluid. each subsequent belch raises and freezes the gray material creating these raised rim looking mud dauber mounds.
This is a thick viscous fluid that readily hardens as it cools when encountering the cold Pluto atmosphere. This creates sublimation holes surrounded by walls which look like the mud dauber effect but the winds in this area are not strong enough to fold the mud over facing toward the south so the mud rises further upward as it belches fluid gasses.
When object's from space impact this area they dig deep into the mud and create larger conically shaped holes that start filling relatively quickly creating larger cone shaped holes. Eventually the gray fluid fills the impact hole leaving behind a round flat lake like smooth gray surface. These impacting objects would further add to Pluto's expansion and extensional faults while leaving behind little evidence as they would be subsurface additions. This is all quiet bizarre and confusing.
It occurred to me, the best place to find evidence of impacts within the wetlands is right along the edge where red tholin covered land ice meets fluid gray ice.
The below image is from the south eastern edge of SP (bottom of the wetlands). The brownish red land ice clearly shows impacts but the gray fluid requires a little imagination (not much) in order to see the impacts that are filling in with gray fluid which is dissolving the land ice.
Taking everything I've learned into account, this is how I see the area east of SP.
The gray fluid on SP has a dissolving effect on the land ice it softens the ice turning it into a cold putty like viscus substance.
There is warmer more liquid-ish fluid below the surface, as it rises it hits cold cold temperatures creating mud dauber like holes where there are sublimation pits very similar to the sublimation cups seen all over the surface of SP.
The primary difference between these sublimation cups and the ones on SP is these have raised rims. I suspect they are further from their source of heat therefore when these bubbles of sublimating nitrogen rise to the surface and pop they leave a rim in the cold viscus fluid. each subsequent belch raises and freezes the gray material creating these raised rim looking mud dauber mounds.
This is a thick viscous fluid that readily hardens as it cools when encountering the cold Pluto atmosphere. This creates sublimation holes surrounded by walls which look like the mud dauber effect but the winds in this area are not strong enough to fold the mud over facing toward the south so the mud rises further upward as it belches fluid gasses.
When object's from space impact this area they dig deep into the mud and create larger conically shaped holes that start filling relatively quickly creating larger cone shaped holes. Eventually the gray fluid fills the impact hole leaving behind a round flat lake like smooth gray surface. These impacting objects would further add to Pluto's expansion and extensional faults while leaving behind little evidence as they would be subsurface additions. This is all quiet bizarre and confusing.
More of the same
There are basically four vertical zones on Pluto
- The zone west of Sputnik Planum with hard old red tholin tar covered land ice.
- Sputnik Planum with flowing nitrogen fluid (hot spot).
- Wetlands south and east of SP with warm upward pointing mud daubers.
- Desert Dunes farther east and north of SP with bulging ridge line of mud daubers pointing south from winds.
- North pole covered in white snow methane laying on top of red tholin with water signature finger like depressions.
- Equatorial region western side with old red tholin, Burp Bulge, folded massive land ice blocks, ridge line with cryovolcanoes, central area with SP, floating icebergs and eastern side with wetlands, mud daubers, Spider and Desert Dunes.
- South pole with compression ridge line, gray liquid creating tributaries rivers and lakes, non-Cryovolcanoes (Wright Mones) and Pitts' Pits,
Here's my adjusted view of SP.
A system of impacts opposite side of SP created deep pits around the south pole as well as massive fractures at SP along with vast quantities of fluid nitrogen/methane. The fluid below the surface began rising out of the fractures at SP creating a blanket of cellular troughs and mounds of fluid and began dissolving the land ice while also causing the land ice to drop into the subsurface cavity left behind as the fluid oozed out from below. Charon's massive gravitational pull collapsed the land ice at SP into a basin. This created the basin that is SP as can be seen by all the surrounding raised land ice. This fluid is either flowing down into Pitts' Pits and recycling back up through the cracks at the center of SP or it's cycling on around the south pole to the other side of Pluto. Pluto's spin likely localizes the fluid around the equatorial region.
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The shock wave phonon energy from those impacts liquefied the nitrogen methane mix below the surface while knocking off some of Pluto's crust creating the four small moons one of which has evidence of red tholin from an impact which likely came from the tholin covered land ice at SP. >>>>>>>> |
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During different seasons varying degrees of Sun energy allow the fluid to sublimate and bubble creating an atmosphere with increased surface pressures creating a moist atmosphere which separates out the methane and nitrogen into a high elevation of white snow and a low elevation of gray heavier fog. As the light methane is released it travels around the planet at higher elevations of which the north is the highest as it didn't experience as much impact energy and its land ice remained more in tact hence it is elevated higher than the south pole area and collects more of the white methane snow.
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>>>>>>>> The thicker gray material (likely nitrogen) can reach its triple point during Pluto's summer when the atmospheric pressure rises high enough and becomes an actual liquid. This heavy material accumulates on low elevated surfaces running off like tributaries and lakes softening the rock hard land ice. >>>>>>>> |
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It appears as though the fluid from SP migrates eastwards into the wetlands and on through Tartarus Dorsa (Desert Dunes) and beyond.
The fluid at SP has a different reddish pinkish hue since tholin is dissolved into the nitrogen/methane mix. The fluid east of SP which is creating the wetlands and raised mounds at Tartarus Dorsa appears to have a different composition as the grayish hue and landscape appear totally different than SP and westward. East of SP the land is elevated but with sharp jagged peaks formed into young (no impacts) rolling spiked mounds. This image demonstrates how a wide long band of land ice has been softened by the nitrogen flowing out of SP. Since there are no impacts in this region the surface must be firm enough to hold its shape but pliable enough to absorb impacts. Sorta like frozen mud crust which when impacted collapses but then fills rather quickly. >>>>>>>> |
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>>>>>>>> As fluid and land ice mix and melt together east of SP, vents release moist gasses which build up and are blown southward by Pluto's winds creating the mud dauber like mounds. The subsurface fluid bubbles up in some places and vents in other places while the fog coats the surface softening the land ice such that impacts are not seen in this area. The mixture of these two effects along with the cold fast winds build up the mud daubers into raised rims around the vents near SP and bent over mud dauber desert dune mounds further from SP's heat source. >>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> West of the equatorial region of the ridge line, small cryovolcanoes erupt releasing pressure from the squeezing effect of the icebergs and the subsurface nitrogen this pressure has also created the burp bulge (NASA's Viking Terra) >>>>>>>> This is all just speculation but it's my best guess based on what I see and know but I could be wrong. |
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As the planet rotates the sublimated nitrogen fog in the air along with the subsurface nitrogen fluid tend to travel in an easterly direction. This has set up conditions for creating the wetlands and mud dauber desert dunes. Since nitrogen expands when warmed to a fluid state the land ice to the east of SP primarily fractures from expansion as seen at the Spider. One question I have about Tartarus Dorsa is, where is the white snow methane capped peaks? <<<<<<<< 
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West of SP we see iceberg mountains up to 2.5 miles high with red tar like tholin covered old (many impacts) rock hard land ice. The icebergs floating on the surface tend to collide with the land ice (due to the polygonal cellular mounds being raised higher at the center of SP than at the edges) this creates a current that presses outward from the center of SP causing a compressive force which created the ridge line that runs from the North pole to the South. I just realized the fluid flowing toward Norgay Montes suggest it is flowing out of the equatorial (central) area of SP down toward Norgay Montes dropping deep down into Pitts' Pits turning northward and convecting back up again through the center of SP. The strength of this flow is demonstrated by the massive icebergs (Norgay Montes) colliding into and pushing the softened land ice into mud berm looking mounds which are raised 2.5 miles high by the force. Pluto's gravity being much weaker than Earths would not require as much force to push the mud berm this high but the force is never the less significant. The fluid flows like an ocean creating waves that push the icebergs against the land ice. <<<<<<<< 
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