Why does Iapetus have an equatorial ridge bisecting it?

[the blob inc]

figure this one out?

why does saturns moon iaeptus have a big wall that bisects it(while it looks like a big ying/yang)?
just curious how that is even geologically possible at all?

 

[zanazzi78]

As far as i am aware the reason is unknown. It is belived that the dark area is soot/dust swept up by Iaeptus possibly from Phoebe.

 

[the blob inc]

right acrost its equator though... i think not, just think of the sheer probiblity of such an event occurring?? its also rather tall too, just check out these pics.

 

[ziggwarth]

This article suggests that the moon actually consumed one of Saturn's rings:

According to a Geophysical Research Letter submitted on the 29th of April by Paulo C.C. Freire of Arecibo Observatory, "...this ridge and the dark coating of the hemisphere on which it lies are intimately interlinked and are the result of a collision with the edge of a primordial Saturnian ring, ultimately caused by a sudden change in the orbit of Iapetus".

 

[Danger]

It's just the seam left over from when they put in the caramel centre.

 

[zanazzi78]

It's just the seam left over from when they put in the caramel centre.

 

[neurocomp2003]

simultaneity/complexity/synchronous/stability

 

[kublai]

If the moon is rotating very fast it may have driven debris from the rings to it's equator.

Or, fast rotation during a rapid cooldown causing the crust to be crunched into a moutain ring by contraction of the main mass.

I think I like the first guess better.

 

[Charvell]

It looks to me like a blast area.

Hypothesis: A large moon in the vicinity exploded from massive internal pressures or perhaps fissioning, the shock and debris hit this hemisphere causing the blackened state and also the ridge. This could also be the cause of the rings.

I believe that there were more explosions in the early solar system. Because of the blackened state of large numbers of asteroids and the several different belts, this would fit with observations. There is reason to believe the solar system may have harboured as many as 12 "actual" original planets.