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One of the most shocking discoveries of the past 10 years is how much the landscape of Saturn's moon Titan resembles Earth.
Like our own blue planet, the surface of Titan is dotted with lakes and seas; it has river channels, islands, mud, rain clouds and maybe even rainbows. The giant moon is undeniably wet.
The “water” on Titan is not, however, H2O. With a surface temperature dipping 290 degrees F below zero, Titan is far too cold for liquid water. Instead, researchers believe the fluid that sculpts Titan is an unknown mixture of methane, ethane, and other hard-to-freeze hydrocarbons.
The idea that Titan is a wet world with its own alien waters is widely accepted by planetary scientists.
Nothing else can account for the observations: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has flown by Titan more than 90 times since 2004, pinging the Moon with radar and mapping its lakes and seas.
ESA's Huygens probe parachuted to the surface of Titan in 2005, descending through humid clouds and actually landing in moist soil.
Yet something has been bothering Alex Hayes, a planetary scientist on the Cassini radar team at Cornell University.
If Titan is really so wet, he wonders, “Where are all the waves?”
Here on Earth, bodies of water are rarely still. Breezes blowing across the surface cause waves to ripple and break; raindrops striking sea surfaces also provide some roughness.
Yet on Titan, the lakes are eerily smooth, with no discernable wave action down to the millimeter scale, according to radar data from Cassini.
“We know there is wind on Titan,” said Hayes. “The moon's magnificent sand dunes [prove] it.”
Add to that the low gravity of Titan – only 1/7th that of Earth – which offers so little resistance to wave motion, and you have a real puzzle.
Researchers have toyed with several explanations. Perhaps the lakes are frozen. Hayes thinks that is unlikely, however, “because we see evidence of rainfall and surface temperatures well above the melting point of methane.”
Or maybe the lakes are covered with a tar-like substance that damps wave motion. “We can't yet rule that out,” he added.
The answer might be found in the results of a study Hayes and colleagues published in the July 2013 online edition of the journal Icarus.
Taking into account the gravity of Titan, the low viscosity of liquid hydrocarbons, the density of Titan's atmosphere, and other factors, they calculated how fast wind on Titan would have to blow to stir up waves: A walking-pace breeze of only 1 to 2 miles per hour should do the trick.
This suggests a third possibility: the winds just haven’t been blowing hard enough. Since Cassini reached Saturn in 2004, Titan’s northern hemisphere (where most of the lakes are located) has been locked in the grip of winter. Cold heavy air barely stirs, and seldom reaches the threshold for wave-making.
But now the seasons are changing. In August 2009 the sun crossed Titan’s equator heading north. Summer is coming, bringing light, heat and wind to Titan's lake country.
“According to [climate models], winds will pick up as we approach the solstice in 2017 and should be strong enough for waves,” he said.
If waves appear, Cassini should be able to detect them. Radar reflections from wavy lake surfaces can tell researchers a great deal.
Wave dimensions, for instance, may reveal the viscosity of the underlying fluid and, thus, its chemical composition.
Also, wave speeds would track the speed of the overlying winds, providing an independent check of Titan climate models.
Hayes is excited about “bringing oceanography to another world. All we need now,” he said, “are some rough seas.”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
LUCERNE, Calif. – A man was flown from Lucerne to a regional trauma center Thursday afternoon after he was stabbed.
The incident occurred in the 6000 block of Highway 20 near the Foster's Freeze restaurant, according to radio reports.
Northshore Fire personnel arriving at restaurant found a male victim, with the suspect said to be across the street at the location of the fight, reports from the scene stated.
Firefighters moved the patient to the area of Seventh Avenue and Highway 20 as they waited for sheriff's deputies to arrive, based on scanner reports.
A REACH air ambulance was requested, with the helicopter landing shortly before 5 p.m. at a landing zone set up at Lucerne Harbor Park.
The air ambulance lifted off for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital just after 5 p.m., according to radio reports.
Several sheriff's deputies and a California Highway Patrol officer were at the scene interviewing witnesses.
A bystander reported witnessing one young male suspect being taken into custody.
Additional details will be posted as they become available.
John Jensen contributed to this report.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
COBB, Calif. – A 3.0-earthquake was reported Thursday afternoon near The Geysers geothermal steamfield.
The quake occurred at 3:36 p.m. and was centered three miles northwest of The Geysers and 13 miles southwest of Clearlake at a depth of six-tenths of a mile, according to the US Geological Survey's preliminary report.
As of 4 p.m. the survey had not received any shake reports.
A 3.1-magnitude quake was reported on Cobb last Thursday, as Lake County News has reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Clear Lake High School cyclist Nathan Barnett scored a top 10 finish at his first-ever national level cross country mountain bike race.
This year, the Cross-Country Mountain Bike Nationals headed to the East Coast for the first time since 2008.
With local sponsorship support from Jeff and Tami Cramer at Main Street Bicycles, Barnett – a junior at Clear Lake High School who finished fourth overall in the California State High School Mountain Bike championships earlier this year – made the trip to the Bear Creek Resort in Macungie, Penn., last week.
More than 1,000 riders of all ages took to the trails at Bear Creek Resort in eastern Pennsylvania Thursday, July 18, through Sunday, July 21, vying for coveted stars-and-stripes jerseys in cross-country, short track cross-country and Super D race classes.
After practicing the grueling 3.6-mile mountainous single track race course for two days, the 16-year-old Barnett put his skills and fitness to the ultimate test for the “Category 1” or “Expert” level cyclist on Friday, July 19.
On that morning Barnett took the start flag along with 29 other aspiring professional cyclists and charged into the mountains for what would turn out to be a grueling one-hour, four-minute sprint through the winding, wooded, rocky single track course.
Despite falling during his aggressive pursuit of another rider, Barnett was able to remount his carbon fiber Specialized Epic race bike and continue on to an impressive 10th place finish.
“These kids were quite a bit faster than the Nor Cal Mountain Bike league racers, but I felt like I had the speed and confidence in my equipment to put in a good ride,” Barnett said following the race.
Barnett said next he'll be racing the Downieville Classic in two weeks. He won the beginner 15-18 year old class last year and will be racing the Expert 15-18 class this year.
“After Downieville I'll begin moving some of my focus to road racing and time trialing,” he said. “I would really love to ride the AMGEN Tour of California someday on a pro cycling team.”
Barnett thanked the Cramers for their support of his racing. “They have been a huge help and I really appreciate it.”
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – County and state officials are taking action against a Kelseyville mobile home park where a sewage spill took place earlier this month.
The spill occurred at Kolaia Landing, located at 8910 Soda Bay Road.
On Saturday, July 13, the wheels of a boat trailer ran over a sewage effluent pipe at the 12-space park, crushing the pipe and leading to the spill, according to Lake County Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski.
Ruminski said he received a call from Lake County Central Dispatch at 6:30 p.m. the day after the spill, and went out to check things over that night and talked to a resident.
He said the park is served by two separate septic tanks and leach fields, which Ruminski added is “fairly typical” in older mobile home parks like Kolaia Landing.
The pipe that was broken transported effluent up to a leach field at a higher elevation. A pressurized part of the pipe is above the ground and next to a driveway, said Ruminski. That's the area that was damaged by the boat trailer.
Instead of having the repairs made immediately, the park's management waited until Monday, July 15, Ruminski said.
Ruminski went out again that same Monday to find the pipe had been repaired. However, he said, “To us, the repair is not adequate.”
He said the pipe remains above the ground – a violation of county code – which means it can be crushed again at any time.
Effluent from the septic tank also remained on the ground at that time. While not raw sewage, Ruminski said effluent is just as much of a health hazard.
“For us, the risk, the hazard, the nuisance, the risk of disease – it's sewage,” he said.
The other issue, said Ruminski, is conducting repairs without the proper county permits.
Ruminski said he has not been able to speak to the owner, Susan Frances – reported to be out of the country – or to her manager, David Brown, which Ruminski said is a frustration in the effort to resolve the matter.
When Ruminski knocked on the door of the manager's residence no one answered, he said.
The park's listed phone number also has been disconnected and Brown did not return a message seeking comment from Lake County News.
When it comes to handling mobile home parks, Ruminski said the county works with the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which has jurisdiction over such parks.
However, he said the county can still use its local codes and authorities to pursue action against Kolaia Landing.
Eric Johnson, California Housing and Community Development spokesman, said the agency sent out an inspector on Tuesday, July 16.
The state’s inspector made three findings identical to those made by Lake County Environmental Health – sewage discharge on the ground, sewage pipe repaired without a permit and a pipe that's carrying sewage being exposed to damage or, in other words, being above ground when it's supposed to be buried, Johnson said.
Johnson said they were assured by the park's manager that he's cleaned and sanitized the area, but the inspector found there was still sewage exposed.
However, a park resident told Lake County News that the manager's idea of sanitizing was dumping bleach on the affected area. Ruminski said a water hose was running into it to dilute it.
The park has 30 days to comply from the July 16 inspection date, Johnson said. “If all goes according to plan, it will be fixed very soon.”
An inspector will return to the park to make sure the effluent is cleaned up and the pipe is properly buried, said Johnson, adding there will not be penalties if those corrections are made.
Other than this most recent issue, “We have no complaints in our records about this particular mobile home park,” Johnson said.
Ruminski, who is serving the park with a notice of violation, said there could be monetary penalties and fees – including charging the park for his staff's response time – if the park fails to correct the problems. Those penalties don't require a court decision, he added.
“The residents really shouldn't have to mess with that and be exposed to that hazard and that nuisance,” Ruminski said.
There also is the possibility of infractions or misdemeanor charges for failure to comply. “I'm going to explore that,” Ruminski said.
Ruminski expects the case could become very time consuming for his department if it goes to court.
He added, “We don’t not do something because it’s extra work.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has accepted the California Department of Public Health Drinking Water Program’s (CDPH DWP) corrective action plan in response to the April 2013 notice of non-compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act.
On Wednesday, California Department of Public Health Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman said his agency was committed to meeting federal and state goals to ensure Californians have access to safe and reliable drinking water throughout the state.
“We are pleased the U.S. EPA today accepted our corrective action plan, which allows us to achieve this goal through funding small, medium and large water system projects across the state,” he said. “We have improved our processes and work with stakeholders over the last two years and will make continued improvements to get funding to water projects more quickly.”
Chapman said CDPH will continue to work closely with its federal and state partners, and all interested parties toward achieving the goal of providing safe drinking water through California’s public water systems.
In April, the US EPA informed CDPH that it was not in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act reporting that $455 million out of the $1.5 billion has been provided to California to capitalize the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund had not been spent, as Lake County News has reported.
Last month, CDPH submitted a corrective action plan to the US EPA that addressed all 29 of the issues raised by the federal agency in April, with $84 million intended for immediate distribution for water projects across the state.
In addition, CDPH had anticipated it would distribute nearly $200 million in total funds in this new fiscal year and in the two upcoming fiscal years, and will disburse an additional $600 million for water projects.
CDPH documents had listed $1.8 million for surface water treatment plant improvements for the community of Spring Valley east of Clearlake Oaks among its current list of executed funding agreements for water projects.