spacetoday.net: Iapetus landslides puzzle scientists

Posted: Wed, Aug 1, 2012, 8:35 AM ET (1235 GMT)
Iapetus landslide (NASA/JPL/Space Science Inst.)

Scientists this week said they have found a large number of landslides on the Saturnian moon of Iapetus that extend out much farther than expected, posing a challenge for the dynamics of such events. In a paper in the latest issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists measured 30 landslides down mountain slopes and crater walls on the icy moon. They found that in many cases the "runout" of the landslides extended much further from the site of the landslide than expected, suggesting the ice in the landslides had a much lower coefficient of friction than experimental data about very cold ice would suggest. Scientists are seeking to better understand the dynamics of landslides there, which could also explain some landslides with very long runouts on Earth.