# Doom Mons

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Mountain on Titan

Doom Mons Doom Mons with collapse feature Sotra Patera and flow feature Mohini Fluctus, the latter partially covered by dunes. Radar image by Cassini, 2007 Feature type Mountain, possible cryovolcano Location Aztlan, Titan Coordinates 14°39′S 40°25′W / 14.650°S 40.417°W / -14.650; -40.417[1] Peak 1.45 km (0.90 mi) above the surrounding plains Discoverer Cassini Eponym Mount Doom, Middle-earth, from J. R. R. Tolkien's works

**Doom Mons** is the name of a [mountain](/source/Mountain) [range](/source/Mountain_range) and its eponymous peak on [Titan](/source/Titan_(moon)), the largest [moon](/source/Moon) of [Saturn](/source/Saturn). A putative [cryovolcano](/source/Cryovolcano), it is the largest mountain range on Titan by volume. It was discovered by the [*Cassini–Huygens* probe](/source/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens) in 2005 and officially named in 2012.

## Naming

Doom Mons is named after [Mount Doom](/source/Mount_Doom), a volcano that appears in [J. R. R. Tolkien](/source/J._R._R._Tolkien)'s fictional world of [Middle-earth](/source/Middle-earth), most prominently in *[The Lord of the Rings](/source/The_Lord_of_the_Rings)*.[1] The name follows [a convention](/source/Astronomical_naming_conventions) by the [IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature](/source/International_Astronomical_Union) that Titanean mountains are named after mountains in Tolkien's works. Other examples of Titanean mountains or mountain ranges [named after Tolkien's works](/source/List_of_geological_features_on_Titan#Montes) include [Erebor Mons](/source/Erebor_Mons), the [Irensaga Montes](/source/Irensaga_Montes), [Mindolluin Montes](/source/Mindolluin_Montes), [Misty Montes](/source/Misty_Montes), [Mithrim Montes](/source/Mithrim_Montes), and [Taniquetil Montes](/source/Taniquetil_Montes).[2] The name of Mount Doom was formally announced for the Titanean mountain on November 13, 2012.[3]

## Location

Doom Mons is located in the Titan's southern hemisphere, between 14 and 15° south and 40–41° west.[1] It is located within the Aztlan [darklands](/source/List_of_geological_features_on_Titan#Dark_albedo_features) region,[4] possibly connected to the wider [Shangri-La](/source/Shangri-La_(Titan)) dark region, and is adjacent to [Sotra Patera](/source/Sotra_Patera), a possible cryovolcanic caldera 1.7 km (1.1 mi) deep.[5]

[Mohini Fluctus](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mohini_Fluctus&action=edit&redlink=1), a bright [lobate](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lobate) flow feature at least 200 kilometers (120 mi) long, appears to emerge from Doom Mons and extends to the northeast. It is partially covered by [dunes](/source/Dunes), including at its visible terminus, suggesting it is on the order of tens of meters thick.[5] About 470 km (290 mi) to the north-northeast is situated another putative cryovolcanic feature, [Erebor Mons](/source/Erebor_Mons), which is 40 km (25 mi) across, over 1 km (1,000 m; 0.62 mi; 3,300 ft) high, and has lobate flow features to its north and east.[5]

## Characteristics and height

From 2005, the findings of the Cassini–Huygens probe have revealed a largely smooth surface of Titan, with some notable abnormalities. Many Titanean "mountains" are little more than hills.[6] However, some of these mountains rise to some several hundreds of meters high. Doom Mons is currently believed to be possibly the largest Titanean mountain range and with the eponymous peak one of the highest;[7] the title of highest peak on Titan is thought to be held by the [Mithrim Montes](/source/Mithrim_Montes),[8] which may have been formed by global contraction.[9] Doom Mons is believed to be a twin-peak that rises 1.45 km (0.90 mi) above the relatively flat surrounding plain, and a probable massive [cryovolcano](/source/Cryovolcano).[5] It has a 500–600 m deep indentation on its western side, containing a circular pit that is another 400 m deep, while Sotra Patera is immediately to its east.[5]

Doom Mons is constantly bombarded with [wind, rain and snow](/source/Climate_of_Titan) composed of liquid [methane](/source/Methane) and [ethane](/source/Ethane), hydrocarbon dust and organic smog and tholin haze; the summit of Doom Mons, however, appears to be mostly clear and [ice-capped](/source/Ice_cap) with [water ice](/source/Ice). The superficial features of Doom Mons are constantly changing, a fact which may be exacerbated by a sub-surface, briny ocean.[10] The permanent hurricane at the southern pole of Titan probably causes an issue of constant erosion on Doom Mons, preventing the mountain from growing taller.[11] Doom Mons is believed to have a total width about 60 km (37 mi).[1] Robert Brown of the [University of Arizona](/source/University_of_Arizona), one of the controllers of the Cassini-Huygens probe, gave the following description of Doom Mons at the December 2006 meeting of the [American Geophysical Union](/source/American_Geophysical_Union) in [San Francisco](/source/San_Francisco), California:

"This mountain range is tall enough to produce streamers of clouds that extend far around the moon. You could call this the Titan Sierras. Several smaller ranges appear to be nearby, as does a [circular feature](/source/Guabonito_(crater)) that might be the crater from an ancient asteroid impact powerful enough to have punched through Titan's outer crust. I speculate that the mountains might be a chain of volcanoes that oozed up along cracks in the crust after the impact."[12]

## Fiction

Coincidentally, before *The Lord of the Rings* was published, a fictional mountain range of Titan already existed that carried the name "Mount Doom"; this was a major setting in the 1935 science-fiction tale *[Flight on Titan](/source/Flight_on_Titan)* by [Stanley G. Weinbaum](/source/Stanley_G._Weinbaum). This was one of the [locations](/source/Planetary_series#Places) in the Titan portion of Weinbaum's acclaimed *[Planetary series](/source/Planetary_series)*. Weinbaum's Mount Doom was alternatively referred to in the tale as the "Mountains of Death", or "Mountains of The Damned"; it was populated by hostile native wildlife such as "Ice-Ants", "Whiplash Trees", [pterodactyl](/source/Pterodactyl)-like "Knife-Kites", and the [hypnosis](/source/Hypnosis)-inducing "Giant Titanian Cave Threadworm". The climate of Weinbaum's mountain is described as sub-Arctic, and it is constantly battered by howling ice-needle storms and hurricane-force winds.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-gpn_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-gpn_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-gpn_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-gpn_1-3) ["Doom Mons"](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15044). *Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature*. USGS Astrogeology Research Program. (Center Latitude: -14.65°, Center Longitude: 40.42°)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Categories for Naming Features on Planets and Satellites"](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Categories). *Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature*. [International Astronomical Union](/source/International_Astronomical_Union). Retrieved November 14, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Blue, Jennifer (November 13, 2012). ["Eight New Names for Titan Surface Features"](https://web.archive.org/web/20140222134422/http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/HotTopics/index.php?%2Farchives%2F463-Eight-New-Names-for-Titan-Surface-Features.html). USGS Astrologeology Science Center. Archived from [the original](https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/HotTopics/index.php?/archives/463-Eight-New-Names-for-Titan-Surface-Features.html) on February 22, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2019.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Titan with VIMS background and RADAR strips"](https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/Titan_comp_VIMSimage.pdf) (PDF). [United States Geological Survey](/source/United_States_Geological_Survey). Retrieved November 14, 2012.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Lopes_2013_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Lopes_2013_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Lopes_2013_5-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Lopes_2013_5-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Lopes_2013_5-4) [Lopes, R. M. C.](/source/Rosaly_Lopes-Gautier); Kirk, R. L.; Mitchell, K. L.; LeGall, A.; Barnes, J. W.; Hayes, A.; Kargel, J.; Wye, L.; Radebaugh, J.; Stofan, E. R.; Janssen, M. A.; Neish, C. D.; Wall, S. D.; Wood, C. A.; [Lunine, Jonathan I.](/source/Jonathan_Lunine); Malaska, M. J. (March 19, 2013). ["Cryovolcanism on Titan: New results from Cassini RADAR and VIMS"](https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00807740/file/Lopes_et_al-2013-Journal_of_Geophysical_Research__Planets.pdf) (PDF). *Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets*. **118** (3): 416–435. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2013JGRE..118..416L](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013JGRE..118..416L). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1002/jgre.20062](https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fjgre.20062).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Cassini Solstice Mission: About Saturn & Its Moons"](https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=76). *Cassini Solstice Mission*. [NASA](/source/NASA). Retrieved February 7, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["To Visit Mount Doom In Real Life You Must Travel Where?"](https://web.archive.org/web/20161227115154/http://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/to-visit-mount-doom-in-real-life-you-must-travel-where/). How-to Geek. Archived from [the original](https://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/to-visit-mount-doom-in-real-life-you-must-travel-where/) on December 27, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-PIA20023_8-0)** ["PIA20023: Radar View of Titan's Tallest Mountains"](https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20023). *Photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov*. [Jet Propulsion Laboratory](/source/Jet_Propulsion_Laboratory). March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Mitri2010_9-0)** Mitri, G.; Bland, M. T.; Showman, A. P.; Radebaugh, J.; Stiles, B.; Lopes, R. M. C.; Lunine, Jonathan I.; Pappalardo, R. T. (October 12, 2010). ["Mountains on Titan: Modeling and observations"](https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2010JE003592). *Journal of Geophysical Research*. **115** (E10): E10002. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2010JGRE..11510002M](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010JGRE..11510002M). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1029/2010JE003592](https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2010JE003592).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** ["NASA – Massive Mountain Range Imaged on Saturn's Moon Titan"](https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072221/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20061212.html). [NASA](/source/NASA). December 12, 2006. Archived from [the original](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20061212.html) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 7, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Mountains Discovered On Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon"](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071220223729.htm). [Science Daily](/source/Science_Daily). December 21, 2007. Retrieved February 7, 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Lovett, Richard A. (December 13, 2006). ["Mile-High Mountains Found on Saturn's Moon Titan"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130731010148/http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2006/12/061213-titan.html). [National Geographic](/source/National_Geographic_(magazine)). Archived from [the original](http://news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2006/12/061213-titan.html) on July 31, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2016.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Doom Mons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Mons) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Mons?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.