Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by saagarjha on Thursday July 19, 2018 @06:47AM
(#17565158)
Is the maximum height of mountains on Earth really due to gravity or a limit imposed by geological weathering?
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Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by azernik on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:37AM
(#17565377)
According to quite a lot of comparative planetary geology work, Mt. Everest, Mauna Kea, etc. are pretty close to the height limit imposed by gravity and structural strength. On some objects (like Mercury or the Moon: see https://arxiv.org/pdf/1511.04297.pdf) there aren't any mountains high enough to hit that limit, but Earth seems to have active enough tectonics to push up at that limit despite weathering.
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by rsynnott on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:14AM
(#17565288)
A bit of one, a bit of the other, AFAIK. Of course, having geological weathering is also a function of gravity; small objects don't have the atmosphere for it.
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by magduf on Thursday July 19, 2018 @12:43PM
(#17568056)
The tallest planetary mountain in the solar system is Olympus Mons on Mars, about 2.5x as tall as Mount Everest (as measured from sea level). This is only possible because Mars has 1/3 the gravity of Earth.