Io Mountain Database
Sifting through the LPSC abstracts, I found one describing an online Io Mountain database. Quite easy to use and they even have quite a bit of data on my favorite Ionian mountain (next to my favorite Ionian volcano), but they still don't have the official name for it.
posted by Jason Perry at 1:38 PM
4 Comments:
So, Jason - don't keep us in suspense. *Why* are they your favorites?
- Gsnorgathon
For a number of reasons, first, its location on the surface is such that Jupiter would appear on the horizon. Second, the mountain to the north of Gish Bar has the only known deposit of hydrated minerals, maybe even water ice. Third, the volcano's floor bears the mark of numerous eruptions making it one of the few places where an eruption history can be derived.
Hydrated minerals? That is cool. I hadn't heard about that. The bit about Jupiter on the horizon is also cool; it reminds me of Chesley Bonestell picking a crater near the north polar region of the moon so he could have the astronauts in his paintings bouncing around with Earth on the horizon.
Contrast that with all the ridiculous paintings of Huygens going down on Titan with Saturn looming and the rings visible and clearly not even in the right season. Argh.
The NIMS instrument on Galileo found a spectral feature at 3.15 microns that can be interpreted as being due to the O-H stretch on the northside of Gish Bar Mons. This would indicate hydrated minerals could possibly be in that area.
BTW, I had a poster in the 2003 LPSC on Gish Bar and its volcanic history and geology:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2003/pdf/1720.pdf
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