Kraken Mare Is Largest and Deepest Body of Liquid on Titan

Summary: Kraken Mare is the largest and deepest body of liquid on Titan, with the approximate size of Earth's Caspian Sea and an estimated depth of 1,000 feet.

Detail of colorized mosaic, obtained by Cassini Titan RADAR Mapper, shows Titan's largest and deepest body of liquid, Kraken Mare; Wikimedia Commons has modified original NASA image, published Dec. 12, 2013, as Photojournal PIA17655, via 40 degree-rotation for upper left placement of north and cropping to focus on Kraken Mare; NASA image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/USGS: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kraken Mare is the largest and deepest body of liquid on Titan, with a size equivalent to Earth's largest inland body of water, the Caspian Sea, and an estimated depth of at least 1,000 feet.

Kraken Mare is centered at 68 degrees north latitude, 310 degrees west longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The north polar region occupant's northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 81 degrees north and 55 degrees north, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes reach 274 degrees west and 335 degrees west, respectively. Kraken Mare's diameter spans 1,170 kilometers.

Kraken Mare's longitudinal stretch places it on Titan's Saturn-facing side. The Saturnian moon's equivalent rotational and orbital periods ensure that Titan always shows the same side to Saturn. Titan's near side faces Saturn. Titan's far side faces away from Saturn.

Its southernmost and northernmost extremes allow Kraken Mare to stretch from Titan's high middle latitudes, beginning at 55 degrees north, to its high polar latitudes, at 81 degrees north. Nine degrees separate Kraken Mare's northernmost latitude from Titan's north pole.

As a north polar region occupant, Kraken Mare (Latin: mare, "sea") neighbors with Titan's two other named maria (Latin: maria, plural, "seas"), Ligeia Mare and Punga Mare. Ligeia Mare lies to the east-northeast of Kraken Mare. Punga Mare lies to the north-northwest of Kraken Mare and to the northwest of Ligeia Mare.

Ligeia Mare is centered at 79.7 degrees north latitude, 247.9 degrees west longitude. It records northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 82 degrees north and 74 degrees north, respectively. It registers easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 222 degrees west and 276.7 degrees west, respectively. Ligeia Mare's diameter measures 500 kilometers.

Punga Mare is centered at 85.1 degrees north latitude, 339.7 degrees west longitude. It establishes its northernmost and southernmost latitudes at 89 degrees north and 82.2 degrees north, respectively. It obtains its easternmost and westernmost longitudes at 72 degrees west and 287 degrees west, respectively. Punga Mare has a diameter of 380 kilometers.

Kraken Mare's diameter of 1,170 kilometers distinguishes it as the largest of Titan's three maria. Ligeia Mare's diameter of 500 kilometers places it as Titan's second largest mare. Punga Mare's diameter of 380 kilometers qualifies it as the smallest of Titan's three maria.

Kraken Mare's size exceeds that of the Caspian Sea, Earth's largest inland body of water. Kraken Mare encompasses about 150,000 square miles (400,000 square kilometers), according to the NASA Science Solar System Exploration website's page, "Titan Polar Maps -- 2015." The Caspian Sea covers approximately 143,200 square miles (371,000 square kilometers), according to the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) online World Factbook.

Titan's liquid bodies of water are comprised primarily of methane (chemical formula CH4) and also of ethane (chemical formula C2H6). The two hydrocarbons are the two most important constituents of Earth's natural gas.

Titan's chilly temperatures, occasioned by the Saturnian system's distance from the sun, encourage the existence of ethane and methane in liquid states, explains planetary scientist Ralph D. Lorenz in "The Challenging Depths of Titan's Seas," published in the April 2021 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research JGR Planets. Methane's transparency to radio waves allows for remote exploration of Titan's liquid bodies of water through the directly down-pointed soundings of radar altimetry.

Radar altimetry of Kraken Mare was conducted during the Cassini spacecraft's T104 flyby of Aug. 21, 2014, according to lead author Valerio Poggiali and six co-authors in "The Bathymetry of Moray Sinus at Titan's Kraken Mare," published in the December 2020 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research JGR Planets. The altimetry data's lack of "a seafloor reflection" for Kraken Mare's main body prevented determination of Kraken Mare's depth. Insufficient data disallowed discerning either Kraken Mare's great depth or the sea's highly absorbent liquid composition as the likely explanation for the absence of a seafloor signal. The researchers based an estimated depth in excess of 100 meters on response models to altimetry mode observations.

A depth range of "more than 100 m deep, and probably more than 300 m deep" is suggested in Ralph Lorenz's commentary, "The Challenging Depths of Titan's Seas." The Cornell University planetary scientist agrees with great depth and/or liquid composition as interferers with a bottom echo. Ethane-richness entails radar absorption. Models of Titan's hydrological flux show the compositional variation of ethane buildup induced by methane evaporation in Kraken Mare, according to Lorenz's "The Flushing of Ligeia: Composition Variations Across Titan's Seas in a Simple Hydrological Model," published in the Aug. 28, 2014, issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research JGR Planets.

Kraken Mare's immensity in size and depth easily would accommodate future exploration by a robotic submarine, notes Cornell University science writer Blaine Friedlander in "Astronomers Estimate Titan’s Largest Sea is 1,000 Feet Deep," published in the Jan. 20, 2021, online issue of Cornell Chronicle.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) approved Kraken as the sea's official name on April 11, 2008. The Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature explains the name's origin as: "Fabulous sea monster in the Norwegian seas, said to be a mile and a half in circumference and to cause a whirlpool when it dives." Titan's maria are named after literary or mythic sea monsters, according to the Gazetteer's page on "Categories (Themes) for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites."

Kraken Mare's size of approximately 150,000 square miles (400,000 square kilometers) exceeds the size of the Caspian Sea, Earth's largest inland body of water, approximately sized at 143,200 square miles (371,000 square kilometers); image of Caspian Sea, as viewed from the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 44, taken July 27, 2015, by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, during his fourth and last spaceflight; NASA ID: iss044e022804: Public Domain, via NASA Image and Video Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Detail of colorized mosaic, obtained by Cassini Titan RADAR Mapper, shows Titan's largest and deepest body of liquid, Kraken Mare; Wikimedia Commons has modified original NASA image, published Dec. 12, 2013, as Photojournal PIA17655, via 40 degree-rotation for upper left placement of north and cropping to focus on Kraken Mare; NASA image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/USGS: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA17655_Kraken_Mare_crop.jpg

Kraken Mare's size of approximately 150,000 square miles (400,000 square kilometers) exceeds the size of the Caspian Sea, Earth's largest inland body of water, approximately sized at 143,200 square miles (371,000 square kilometers); image of Caspian Sea, as viewed from the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 44, taken July 27, 2015, by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, during his fourth and last spaceflight; NASA ID: iss044e022804: Public Domain, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-iss044e022804

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