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Kraken Mare and Titan's seas

Kraken Mare is a sea of liquid hydrocarbon at least 400,000 km² across, and Kraken Shore stands on the one coast where Cassini measured how deep it is.

See it in the tour: chapter kraken shore, shot 4.2.

The largest sea

Titan is the only world besides Earth with rivers, lakes and seas on its surface. Theirs are liquid methane and ethane physics. Kraken Mare is the largest. It spans 55 to 81° N and 274 to 335° W, at least 400,000 km² physics. Its inlets carry names: Moray Sinus, Okahu Sinus, and Trevize Fretum, the strait to Ligeia Mare physics.

What the liquid is

The sea is methane-dominated and transparent to radar, like Ligeia Mare physics. The exact split of methane, ethane and dissolved nitrogen is still open. The barge sheet plans on 550 kg/m³ design.

At 94 K, liquid methane is stable at ambient temperature. It needs no refrigeration, only a hose physics.

One place with measured depths

On 21 August 2014 Cassini's radar altimeter flew the T104 pass along the eastern side of Moray Sinus and got echoes from the seafloor. The preliminary result was 20 to 35 m. The 2020 reanalysis put it down to about 85 m physics. The main basin beyond returned no echo, so it is deeper than about 100 m physics. The same data showed steep slopes down to the sea, and a flooded river valley opening into the estuary physics.

Why Kraken Shore is here

Decision 0004 puts the town on the western headland at the mouth of Moray Sinus, at about 75.5° N, 283° W design. Four reasons:

A jetty there reaches deep water where the depth is measured, not guessed.
The steep offshore slopes support a raised site a few hundred metres inland.
The flooded valley gives the bay a cause and the approach flight a landmark.
On the reference date the noon Sun stands 28° high and the midnight Sun 1° below the horizon.

Three other coasts lost. The Tunu Sinus coast and the entrance to Trevize Fretum have no measured depth, and the north coast of Mayda Insula is an island, which makes logistics harder design.

Cassini radar resolves 0.35 to 1.7 km. The headland's shape and its 200 to 500 m inland rise are reconstructed from that coarse data design. The town, jetty and roads are fiction fiction.

The barge

The sea barge is 42 m long and 11 m wide, draws about 4 m, and is driven by an electric screw of 300 kW design. It carries 500 t, or 909 m³ at 550 kg/m³ design. It loads at the jetty through insulated cryogenic hoses and runs the coast to the sea terminal. Its pipework follows the ISO 14726 colour code design.

What it carries becomes shuttle propellant, ascent-vehicle fuel and feedstock for plastics design. See Methalox from Titan.

Key numbers

Quantity	Value	Basis
Kraken Mare extent	55 to 81° N, 274 to 335° W	physics
Area	at least 400,000 km²	physics
Moray Sinus depth (T104)	20 to 35 m preliminary, about 85 m reanalysed	physics
Main basin depth	more than about 100 m	physics
Site	about 75.5° N, 283° W	design
Sun at the site, noon / midnight	28° / −1°	physics
Barge cargo / liquid density	500 t / 550 kg/m³	design
Barge length / width / draft	42 m / 11 m / about 4 m	design