Geology topics

F. Raulin

Publications and source records attributed to F. Raulin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2010

Report of the COSPAR mars special regions colloquium

In this paper we present the findings of a COSPAR Mars Special Regions Colloquium held in Rome in 2007. We review and discuss the definition of Mars Special Regions, the physical parameters used to define Mars Special Regions, and physical features on Mars that can be interpreted as Mars Special Regions. We conclude that any region experiencing temperatures > -25 ??C for a few hours a year and a water activity > 0.5 can potentially allow the replication of terrestrial microorganisms. Physical features on Mars that can be interpreted as meeting these conditions constitute a Mars Special Region. Based on current knowledge of the martian environment and the conservative nature of planetary protection, the following features constitute Mars Special regions: Gullies and bright streaks associated with them, pasted-on terrain, deep subsurface, dark streaks only on a case-by-case basis, others to be determined. The parameter definition and the associated list of physical features should be re-evaluated on a regular basis. ?? 2010 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advances in Space Research↗

USGS2008

TandEM: Titan and Enceladus mission

TandEM was proposed as an L-class (large) mission in response to ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 Call, and accepted for further studies, with the goal of exploring Titan and Enceladus. The mission concept is to perform in situ investigations of two worlds tied together by location and properties, whose remarkable natures have been partly revealed by the ongoing Cassini–Huygens mission. These bodies still hold mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. TandEM is an ambitious mission because its targets are two of the most exciting and challenging bodies in the Solar System. It is designed to build on but exceed the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Cassini–Huygens mission, exploring Titan and Enceladus in ways that are not currently possible (full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time). In the current mission architecture, TandEM proposes to deliver two medium-sized spacecraft to the Saturnian system. One spacecraft would be an orbiter with a large host of instruments which would perform several Enceladus flybys and deliver penetrators to its surface before going into a dedicated orbit around Titan alone, while the other spacecraft would carry the Titan in situ investigation components, i.e. a hot-air balloon (Montgolfière) and possibly several landing probes to be delivered through the atmosphere.

Experimental Astronomy↗

USGS2007

Paleoecology reconstruction from trapped gases in a fulgurite from the late Pleistocene of the Libyan Desert

When lightning strikes the ground, it heats, melts, and fuses the sand in soils to form glass tubes known as fulgurites. We report here the composition of CO2, CO, and NO contained within the glassy bubbles of a fulgurite from the Libyan Desert. The results show that the fulgurite formed when the ground contained 0.1 wt% organic carbon with a C/N ratio of 10-15 and a ??13C of -13.96???, compositions similar to those found in the present-day semiarid region of the Sahel, where the vegetation is dominated by C4, plants. Thermoluminescence dating indicates that this fulgurite formed ???15 k.y. ago. These results imply that the semiarid Sahel (at 17??N) reached at least to 24??N at this time, and demonstrate that fulgurite gases and luminescence geochronology can be used in quantitative paleoecology. ?? 2007 Geological Society of America.

Geology↗