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A few weeks ago I won the Wind Crystal Cup in Milan. This is my second Crystal Cup victory including the Water Cup in Norwich, and my 3rd Top 4 appearance in a row at them due to winning the previous Crystal Cup and Top 4 at Dusseldorf. Like previous European Crystal Cups this one again was Swiss best of 1 during day 1 (7 rounds this time) into a top 32 cut day 2. Day 2's top 32 cut did 4 rounds of draft (best of 1) into a top 8 cut from those players, playing best of 3 knockouts to determine the winner. I went 6-1 in Day 1, 4-0 in draft my only loss was during the final round of Swiss to Mono Wind. At this point it's basically science to say that losing the final round of Swiss is a victory condition as I did the exact same thing in Norwich.
No Pressure
--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--
Deck Name: No Pressure. 1st place Wind Crystal Cup
Created by: yehosera
Forwards (25):
1 Aerith (8-049)
3 Chelinka (7-054)
1 Halicarnassus (7-119)
3 Paine (1-199)
1 Paine (2-063)
1 Y'shtola (5-068)
3 Zidane (3-056)
3 Porom (5-135)
3 Yuri (7-128)
3 Bartz (1-080)
3 Fina (8-060)
Summons (9):
3 Valefor (1-198)
3 Cuchulainn, the Impure (2-133)
3 Diabolos (5-062)
Backups (16):
3 Miounne (5-067)
2 Rikku (1-089)
3 Yuna (1-177)
3 Aleria (7-043)
2 Echo (5-053)
2 Merlwyb (2-137)
1 Shinra (6-048)
Note: don't write your decklist like this without rarity codes you'll get a warning! A lot of people learnt that the hard way at Milan.
Here I want to talk a bit about my draft deck before diving into the constructed portion of the event. In drafting opus 8 there are 3 powerful colors: Ice, Fire, and Wind. Lightning is a close, but only really energizes with Fire. Beyond those three colors Lightning, Water, and Earth can all make very potent Mono decks, because they all have heavy synergy with themselves and no other colors. Water can be played as a Mono deck focusing on Astrologian if 8+ are picked up, Earth can focus on FFXV characters as they're generally open if you're the only person drafting Earth and Lightning relies on more Lightning cards to make their cards playable. The signs I look for before deciding if a color is open is as follows:
Ice - Celes, Umaro, Ark Angel GK, and Shiva as well naturally, but if you open a Shiva you're playing Ice so it should never really get passed until pack 4/5
Fire - Ihora, Rain, Ark Angel HM
Wind - Deathgaze, Alexander, then for the mono decks, these cards HAVE to be included at multiples to work, so if they're being passed they're likely to be open.
Water - Astrologian (multiples 8+ minimum are needed for playing Mono Water), Alexander, Nichol
Earth - Gladiolus (multiples of this card and Noctis are the ONLY reason to look into playing Mono Earth and the biggest indicator that it is open)
Lightning - Only playable with either Rufus, Sakura or 2 Jake or 4 Diana+/Alba. Indicators it's open: Jinnai, Shango
My pack 1, pick 1 was something weak like Ihora I believe, and then I was passed an Ark Angel GK, so in my mind Ice was open when coming from my left. They rapidly dried up and it appeared that only the person directly to my left was not drafting Ice or the packs weren't very ice heavy. This didn't help as almost every pack I opened had a plethora of Fire and Ice cards meaning that other people on the table probably thought that the colors were open, thus increasing my competition for the colors. I started to take Wind cards as well during pack 1, but by pack 3 I hadn't seen any indicators that Wind was actually open (no Deathgaze or Alexanders) so I had to abandon the idea of using Wind as my secondary to Fire rather late into the draft. I wanted to play Mono Fire however, I only had 3 fire backups by the end of pack 4 so I was forced into playing Ice. At this point as well I only had 3 Ice forwards, my draft was a bit of a mess. Lots of backups and forwards in differently elements and a stack of 10 wind backups. In my final pack I had to pass Zenos just to take Edgar as my first pick, I was really lucky though in the final pack and not 1 but 2 Yotsoyu found their way to me along with an Umaro, Celes, and Time Mage giving me a complete deck. The 40 pictured cards were my only 40 Fire and Ice cards excluding 1 copy of the Mask. Every Ice forward in the deck is an exceptionally potent card capable of carrying games on their own (minus Time Mage), this made the Ice cards worth picking up. There are only 2 cards of H+ rarity in the deck, Vivi and Squall. The Vivi I never played so Squall was the only real H card in the deck which really does showcase how powerful Fire/Ice is in opus 8 as I basically forced the color combination and built a deck of Rares and Commons yet was still able to pull out another 4-0 finish in draft.
Round 1 – I opened an insane hand. T1 a backup, T2 Ark Angel HM, Setzer, Red Mage. T3 I had Umaro. T4 Ihora + Samurai, T5 Cocytus, T6 Samurai x2, T7 Ark Angel GK. It was basically solitaire, only another Fire/Ice deck has the flexibility to manage that kind of a draw.
Round 2 - This game was carried by Squall, it's basically a Yuri in this format. I got a really cool lethal where Umaro let me discard my last card in hand to turn the Squall effect on.
Round 3 - I took two hits from Ark Angel Hard Mode, which truly put the game on hard mode for me. However, forward simulator is one of my specialties so it wasn't too hard despite that opening.
Round 4- Stream Game - https://youtu.be/olvHcxj0SHg?t=12063
The Deck
Yuna - Naturally included in the deck as she enables Valefor and Paine which are the reasons to play the deck. Some games Yuna will not be drawn and it is important to identify when that happens and transition over to playing Mono Wind. The deck is still essentially a Mono Wind deck with extra step, so you can revert into becoming a weaker than usual Mono Wind deck but this only happens if you are not drawing the Water cards so it should be a weaker than usual Mono Wind deck with some nutty draws.
Rikku - Originally Rikku was at 3, however, I cut her down to 2 to make space for a 2nd Echo on the day of the event to try and increase my early game consistency. This was a mistake and Yuna should've been cut down to 2 as I always fetch Yuna with EX Paine, so I want to have higher odds of drawing the Rikku after playing EX Paine. Rikku and Yuna are the only backups without entry abilities and this Rikku could have been the EX Rikku. EX Rikku helps the deck in the early turns deal damage without taking damage, but the deck destruction effect is too powerful vs decks like Mono Water and Earth Wind. Even though damage is always the primary win condition with this deck, having a side plan sometimes pulls through.
Miounne - Much like in Earth/Wind Urianger, the Miounne is the extra dimension the decks needs to gain an upper hand vs the competition. Miounne returning Paine is absolutely insane, not only does it put 2 essentially 0cp cards into play, it also improves your hand by letting the player filter bad cards out of it. This play essentially ends most games due to the advantage gained by it. Then naturally as everything is an entry ability (minus Y'shtola, Aerith, Yuri, Yuna, Rikku) there's always some way of utilizing the card's unique ability to get the utter hand.
Aleria - She's the only odd costed backup in the deck (Echo can be odd costed sometimes) so it is important to have 3 of her to try and help curve better. Brother can be considered, but Shinra is just better for this deck as the extra EX Bursts help out more than the smooth backup curve would help. The main reason it is okay to have so few odd costed backups is because the deck has a lot of odd costed forwards to help smooth out early turns and not waste CP.
Shinra - EX and adds Paine. I would like more Shinra in the future (probably over the 2nd Rikku or 3rd Yuna).
Merlwyb - This card is really really important. Even though it looks like a gross waste of CP as it essentially is a 2cp Evoker, by being able to filter the deck and discard early copies of Yuri the card helps the deck draw towards the next backup. During the early stages of the game it is really important to play as many draw cards as possible to help find the next backup to not skip a beat. The draw 2 effect is invaluable, Gramps and Artimecion both have flaws that Merlwyb covers for. Gramps can only draw 1 card whereas Arti is not an EX. Arti could be more useful as it can save Yuris for later on, but the added EX Bursts will help more (as EX Bursts synergies with more EX Bursts).
Echo - My 2nd favorite backup in the deck. The modifiers on the card coupled with the EX Burst really set the card above others. The fact that on turn 1 it is a 4cp card that allow you to skip a draw phase (by filtering 2 cards) to help draw towards the next backup a turn quicker and later on in the game it's untap modifier lets you ramp towards higher backup counts while still drawing towards the next useful card is why I like the card so much. It's flexibility to be good early and late basically.
Valefor - At this point I don't think I have to say anything about the card except that it's okay to discard some early with this deck as Fina is essentially 2x Valefor.
Cuchulainn, the Impure - I see a lot of players discard this card like it's not a 3CP remove a forward draw a card. It is important to try and keep this card in hand whenever possible because one Valefor on the EX coupled with this is a dead forward. Similarly another copy of Cuchu going into the EX pile = dead forward. It also has synergy with the Aerith death effect. The point is, the card is REALLY good when it costs 3CP so I try to preserve it in hand whenever possible. Naturally a 3 of as with Yuna the card is really nice.
Diabolos - Best summon in the game, probably want 3.
Aerith - While some people say she should be a 2nd Y'shtola, I don't actually want to cast Y'shtola twice. In addition, if I have Y'shtola on the field a 2nd could be useless. So I play 1 Aerith as in some spots she's nice. The idea is that Aerith and Y'shtola shouldn't really die without the opponent going out of their way to remove them, so multiples aren't really necessary. She's also an auto win vs Fire/Ice, Mono Lightning etc.
Y'shtola - While some people prefer multiples of her she can't actually die. In addition she is not a core component of the deck's game plan since she is not an entry ability forward, she does not filter my deck, and she does not deal area damage. She's just nice to have on the field so I play 1 and if I draw her nice, if not it's not actively hurting my game plan not having her.
Halicarnassus - I cast this card as a Knight a few times. It was decent. I'm currently trying with Steiner instead of Hali (as it's a water forward with EX), but I think it depends on what decks you play vs a lot which is better. Hali has very high potential, but Steiner is better most of the time, it's just when Hali is good Hali is VERY good.
Chelinka - I play 3 because I ALWAYS search her with Aleria. Don't add Yuri you'll just draw another copy immediately after and complain. She's really important vs decks with cards like Maria and Wakka to trade into their buffed up forwards and the 2k area burn is helpful with Valefor and Fina. Against Ice decks and other Wind decks they usually tend to struggle to remove Yuri from the field so the party attack effect comes up more frequently than you would expect and the game is won the moment the party attack goes through.
Zidane - Card's pretty good.
Paine - Card's pretty good.
Yuri - Card's pretty good. Don't be afraid to start Kung Fu Fighting with Yuri (playing it like a black belt and not leaving the backups up to use it's ability).
Porom - Much like the backups, Porom is to help filter the deck early towards the next backup. Porom does have some nice late game utility as most backups have action effects and by the end of the game they are looking for the action abilities to gain value over the immediate value entry abilities provide, so being able to shut off cards like Miner, Minfilia, Archer is very nice. Also the card has EX.
Fina - This deck was good last opus, but with this fancy new Fina card...it's something else. The sheer win % simply playing Fina and Valefor in the same turn must add to the deck is insane. Not only is she a Bartz type card to instantly gain initiative, she can become a 9,000 power Edea vs certain decks. Basically, don't discard Fina, play her to the field and you'll probably win, at the very least it'll bump the win % by a lot.
Bartz - The Wanderer gets cut from a lot of Water/Wind lists, but he is still an extremely potent card. Since the days of opus 1 he's been allowing Paine to both attack and block! Bartz has the hidden text, opponent has to block your Wind forwards, this is because a 1-2CP 9k is a decent card, but a 1-2CP 9k with entry ability give 1 forward brave that's still okay. The moment it starts saying give 2+ forwards brave there is a problem. Being able to freely attack knowing that if they block cards like Cuchu/Chelinka come online and if they do not block then your forwards can still defend, it's basically turning their damage zone into free real estate. Finally, sometimes you EX a Bartz with a Yuri on the field and the other player sighs very heavily.
Top 8 Matchups
Top 4 - https://youtu.be/olvHcxj0SHg?t=21504
Finals - https://youtu.be/olvHcxj0SHg?t=26917
Mono Water - Basically just let them tire themselves out. They get all excited to play Leila, Viking, Famfrit, and Veritas they'll discard a bunch of good cards at the start and end up playing a deck of like 1 Cagnazzo, 1 Nichol, 1 CoD, 2 Lenna vs you. Essentially their early cards cost a lot of cards in hand so end up depleting their decks overall power level quite a bit by being played. Mill is naturally a win condition, because they draw even more than you. Firstly try to Zidane a Minwu out of their hand otherwise you have to play a different style (essentially you play beaters + Yuri and it gets there if they have Minwu), without Minwu you can sit back, let them do their fancy Veritas and Famfrit stuff and just kinda kill all their forwards. It's really nice of them to play Veritas vs Water Wind as there are 0 breakable backups in the deck, so be sure to thank them the moment one touches the field. If you see a VoD + Famfrit play, just Diabolos the VoD and sac your only forwards to the VoD 2nd ability and the other 2 fizzle, just be mindful that there are a billion ways to outplay their only good plays and the match up is fine. Be sure to establish yourself as the aggressor early on as in the middle of the game their deck is actually stronger, so every attack they cannot make due to the threat of a top deck Yuri being lethal is a point of damage healed.
Mono Wind - Both decks essentially play the same forwards. This deck has Hali and Porom meanwhile they get Moogle and more copies of Y'shtola and Aerith. The main advantage Water Wind gets is access to Fina + Valefor, which generally clears everything. While it's possible to play a slow game and setup to board clear, they have a lot of tools to get in the way, Zidane can take combo pieces and Archers can remove Yuna, in addition they sometimes play Rikku so you will deck out first and Maria makes Fina + Valefor + Chelinka be needed making it harder to setup the combo while removing their forward's abilities with Yuri. So the best approach is just SMOrc them. Early forwards and pressure to try and get them to simplify the game state early on puts Water Wind in a better position due to the high EX concentration. Trading damage is one way Water Wind can beat any deck because something like a Shinra EX can just be lethal due to the advantage it provides. Just trade damage and try to win in a race or go for a super long setup plan.
Ice/Water - Funny thing really, this set they released this really cool Fina card that in combination with Valefor removes the whole deck. The don't play Aulstyne so you can just go all in on the board and they can't really do anything about it. Sit back, let them play their stuff, Fina + Valefor + some other stuff and the game ends. You can deck them out if you really want, but it's just easier to board clear them.
Why no Alhanalem?
The card is vital to Mono Wind's success, but in Water/Wind it's generally easier to board clear. This is because in Mono the only other area damage (to go with Fina) is Chelinka or multiple Yuri activation, so something to help with their board clear turns is needed. In Water/Wind Valefor exists so it's not really needed. This is because the card is only live when Chelinka or Yuri are in play, so it is still possible to scrape together a bootleg clear with Fina and Yuri, while in Mono the help is actually needed as a bootleg clear is their only option without it, in Water/Wind the bootleg clear is already the worst option whereas simply having a Valefor in hand makes the clear a lot easier. In addition the card is not an entry ability backup and would cut into the other, more necessary, backups that filter towards more helpful early game cards. As the early game is when the deck is weakest it's better to have cards that help then rather than late game cards.
I keep drawing no backups, should I add more to improve my odds of drawing some early on?
There are no cards I really want to cut, nor would suggest cutting for more backups. It might be a case of not jamming the 4CP cards that filter the deck early enough, as that's a mistake I made a lot when I first started with the deck. It is possible to swap 1 Yuna and 1 Rikku out for 2 more Shinra as Shinra is a double backup (as in he adds Paine which adds another backup), so if not drawing backups early persists I would experiment with more copies of Shinra, Merwylb, and Echo. In addition, playing Aerith/Zidane/Y'shtola on turn 2 isn't a brick those are really powerful cards that can go the distance when played early vs a lot of decks.
Why no breakable backups?
Even though those cards can be helpful, such as Archer for Minwu/Wakka, I would much rather entry abilities to help in the early game and struggle late game when I have more options and more ways to navigate the game away from situations where the cards that breakable backups would help against.
Tips for beating Ice?
Always Zidane as soon as Sephiroth is playable, without Sephiroth Ice decks are very weak against Water/Wind. In general try and think about how many cards they can discard to make Aulstyne live (if he's in the deck) and try to avoid that while playing Yuri. Yuri is the bane of Ice as he provides infinite value without requiring the player to ever have cards in hand. Naturally Ice decks tend to suck when it comes to hard removal so getting both Chelinka and Yuri onto the field and having them stick isn't too hard a situation to get, this also wins the game. Finally once the flans or their mass discard effects run out, Fina + Valefor is generally lethal, it's just a game of surviving really.
Why 3 Miounne instead of 2?
Miounne is a core backup I want to see as early as turn 1, so I would like to draw it as soon as possible. It is helpful in the early game because it draws cards to help you find additional backups and in the mid-late game it is helpful for the forwards with entry abilities. Essentially the card is always good and I want to play the card as soon as possible as with 0 breakable backups if it is not drawn on time it will not get played.
Water cards and Yuna?
Provided that some filter is drawn having a Water card for Yuna is rarely a problem. Some games, naturally, the deck will miss but in the vast majority of games some filter cards and saving a Water card go a long way.
Famfrit over Cuchulainn?
While Famfrit is undoubtedly a potent summon with Yuna in play, the deck does not have the support network needed to make the card really shine. Famfrit would help vs Ice decks as it could manage the initial forwards like Locke and Sephiroth, even vs Earth Wind the card would be helpful for managing an early Kam'lanaut. One of the downsides to Famfrit is that beyond those early turns it really trails off in power because many decks have good Famfrit blockers (Viking, Veritas, Zidane, Serah) and Cuchu is able to be used alongside other cards in the deck as a piece of combo removal (most notably with Valefor). Finally, there are no forwards the deck wants to sacrifice as they need to connect for damage due to the deck having a short lifespan and generally discarding forwards to gain CP.
Mirror matches and Ice/Earth?
In the mirror, naturally the player that sticks an Yshtola or Aerith is favored as playing before Yuri before a board clear takes a lot of time. Otherwise I wouldn't say aggression wins the mirror (due to the high EX Burst count), but dealing 1 point of damage a turn helps. This is just for the pure mirror, for vs other water wind variants, you cannot kill them your backups draw too many cards, the main advantage stems from Aerith and Bartz (simply because they are cards not played in other versions of water wind), so trying to find ways of using those cards to gain value through Yuri is one way to gain the upper hand. Other decks (water wind decks) tend to feature less entry effect backups making early forwards a way to secure the board and force an early Fina clear from the opponent a way to win. Against ice/earth, I can only suggest Zidane. Sephiroth is so dominant vs the deck, only Zidane to remove Sephiroth from their hand or Y'shtola to cancel the entry is the best advice. Other than that save cards in hand and try to preserve Fina or Valefor until after they blow their discard load. In general if Aulstyne lands the game ends so try to stockpile cards or establish early Yuri and outlive their discard. This isn't a 100% win strategy, and the match up sucks, so don't be disheartened by T2 Seph and T4 Aulstyne!
What changes would you make to the deck?
I would try out Steiner and 2 more Shinra. Other than that there isn't really much else I want to change, the deck plays smoothly and generally is unbeatable when on 5 backups. If you want to checkout those changes in action follow my stream at: www.twitch.tv/yehoserathehat
Spoiler Hint
My age this year is the day of the month my favorite element gets a cool new war leader.
TL;DR Fina x3 won another Crystal Cup
- Yehosera
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Clarence Valley Council (View other jobs from this organisation)
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Home | People | Fellows | Profile
Leda Cosmides
- Professor of Psychology and Co–Director of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology
University of California, Santa Barbara
Leda Cosmides is best known for her work with John Tooby in pioneering the new field of evolutionary psychology. This multidisciplinary new approach weaves together evolutionary biology, cognitive science, human evolution, hunter gatherer studies, neuroscience, and psychology into a new approach to discovering the mechainsms of the human mind and brain. According to this new view, by understanding the adaptive problems our hunter–gatherer ancestors faced during their evolution, researchers can uncover the detailed functional designs of the emotions, reasoning "instincts" and motivations that human evolution produced.
Cosmides is professor of psychology and anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she co–directs the Center for Evolutionary Psychology with John Tooby. She was educated at Harvard and Stanford (postdoctoral). Awards for her research with Tooby include the American Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for Behavioral Science Research, the American Psychological Association's Early Career Award; a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, and a J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship.
Selected Bibliography
What is Evolutionary Psychology?: Explaining the New Science of the Mind (Yale University Press, 2000).
Co–editor of: The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture (Oxford University Press, 1992).


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by Chris Wayan, 2007-2015
For the builders of the Io Mountain Database:
Paul Schenk, Henrik Hargitai, Rhonda Wilson, Alfred McEwen, Peter Thomas
Why Io? Well... I'd just painted, sculpted and wrote a novel-length web guide to Lyr, a model of a livable super-earth. A wet world; islands in a world-sea. Lyr was huge: huge world, and huge project! It took a year or so. I got really, really, really sick of blue. I wanted something hot. Hot colors.
So I started a realistic globe of Io for fun. It may orbit Jupiter, but the big guy hasn't pushed his hippie sensibility on his feisty little kid. No paisley swirls here, no cloudiness. Astronomers can call Io a pizza, but I call it a bratty little Abstract Expressionist slingin' and splattin' that paint around. Mustard, black, brick red, olive green, lilac (no joke! pale lavender), rich sepias, siennas and ochres, and white, with accents of blood-red and lemon-yellow (sulfur is weird chameleon stuff).
Io has to be a New York abstract expressionist. Just look at all those cigarette burns! And ash all over...
The sculpting was fun too--mountains eleven miles high! Second only to Mars, and way steeper. Spectacular, if you could stay alive long enough to see it. Full of gas under pressure, the rocks here are often explosive if exposed to the surface vacuum. So cliffs abound--mountainslopes get sapped and gnawed and blasted into bizarre shapes.
There's some interpretive guesswork, but Io's basically scientific portraiture--the first straight realism I've done. With a place this insane you don't need speculation.
This article's chronological, so the early part is on making the art; the newer, edgier scientific speculation is in the 2015 section.
2007/7/7--I've been studying Io, not for any particular project--it's just beautiful. Should check online, see it there's an altitude map yet; if so, do a relief globe of it just for fun.
7/18--I got a beat-up old globe. Gesso it white. No, that won't do for Pizza Planet. Get out some sienna and paint the whole thing ochre.
Too bad I couldn't find a smooth globe, they just don't make 'em any more. This one had Earth's relief on it. Or rather, horribly distorted, drunken parodies of Earth's relief. This is what we teach kids? Worse than flat. Anyway, I have to smooth Earth off this damn thing before I can build another world on top. So I pry my fetal Io off its stand and spackle it, covering up human stupidity. Leave Io on our back deck to dry. Hope it doesn't rain.
7/22--The spackle left plenty of bumps and hollows. I do another smoothing layer, this one with acrylic sculpting gel and a blade. Messy, tedious, but better. I have a usable globe at last. Jeez, if it'd been a smooth globe all this would have been unnecessary. In future, I'm gonna buy round light fixtures, or beachballs, anything but this. I don't mind prep work, but I resent cleaning up incompetent cartography...
Seek maps of Io online again, and find an enlargeable Mercator that's fairly detailed, with names. Also a crude but very useful database called the Io Mountain Finder. Blurry photos, estimated altitudes and locations--but it gives me different angles. Enough to sculpt from.
7/23--The globe cured on the deck OK. It's as smooth as I'll get it. Paint it white again, and mark a few meridians so I can fix positions.
Draw a big map of Io in pencil, sketching in all the major features--peaks and their altitudes, paterae and their depths and shapes, the twists of lava flows, notes on terrain colors.
Now I'm toggling between a NASA map onscreen and the Io Mountain Finder database--just convert their blurry photos, altitude-estimates and meridians to real shapes... piece of cake. No, I don't mean it's easy, I mean the first mountain's shaped like a slice of cake. They're all weird scabby things, nothing like Earth mountains. And huge. Miles high.
My first mountains didn't fall off. OK, we're in the god business! I can sculpt Io. But this method means I really will have to sit before a screen and work from images and databases on the Web, not paper. Can't print out a couple hundred screens!
So here I sit--Io cradled in my lap like a toddler I have to cuddle while I work. Except the way I placate the baby is to spackle and carve him. Don't try this at home with your baby. Even this one rolls away... fat kid. Volcanic butterball.
7/24-25--Start at longitude 0 and sweep west, building mountains steadily around Io. NASA maps show color, shapes and names, but not profiles or heights; the database shows profiles (low orbital shots; most mountains get spotted as they broke the smooth arc of Io's horizon, or by their long shadows near dawn or dusk) but not color or much context. Hard to reconcile them.
7/26--Work for hours, scarcely realizing it, on Io's topography. A third of the way round, now. Of course 0-75° west went very fast because few mountains were detected--few close-up photos. But 80-100° west has a chain of huge peaks.
7/27--Scattered Andean and Himalayan peaks on through the mid-100s. But no huge chains like the 90s.
7/28--Take a break from spackling, and I draw all the paterae in pencil on the globe, for reference points. Like eyes on a bad potato. Now, back to adding mountains and relief; from 180 to the 230s.
Io. Center: Horus/Ra vents. Upper right: Loki. Horizon: the Boösaule Mts, 18 km high (11 mi)
7/29--Work all morning, add mountains from 236-280 degrees east, and go back over the old ones; rebuild a couple placed wrong. Slip back into obsession; shivering and exhausted and hungry when I quit after noon. Never did eat.
7/30--Work many hours, adding the last mountains. Data gets sparser as the longitudes creep past 330° west, back toward zero.
8/6--Work obsessively again; hours of three-way switching--mountain site, general map, and globe. Still some big discrepancies and missing mountains.
8/7--Corrections. Move some mountains, add a lot of hills, fine-tune the altitudes.
8/8--Decide that several mesas I did early on are really pateras (huge calderas)... and vice versa. Feel confident about the rest though--my model's about as good as can be, from ambiguous photos. Almost time to paint...
8/10--NASA's main site for Io is broken, but I find another site with 250 photos. Page through them all, reworking bits in light of new data.
Greens and browns near Mt Euboeia, 13 km tall (43,000'),
8/11-23--Slowly paint Io, over two weeks.
2007/11/6--Retouching details. It isn't truly finished--one hemisphere's way more vivid and detailed. But the close-up photos fade out halfway round, so some guesswork's unavoidable. Until more data comes in and gets posted, this is about as accurate as I can get.
I finally uploaded the above blog and images to the World Dream Bank, over two years late! Even then, I just posted it as an oddity, an orphaned piece of nondream art.
I felt I couldn't add "Io" to the Planetocopia project, because it's not truly Planetocopian--that series is speculative, and Io was not. No "what if" premise, no intelligent life, indeed no biosphere at all.
Unless maybe the silicon fish swimming in that underground sea of molten sulfur are cunning as well as incandescent. And how you gonna IQ-test them before you melt?
But it was too wild a globe to hide on my shelf forever.
Ooh, pwitty colors. Blues, begone!
Six years later, I suddenly came back to Io with a senseless desire for closure. I re-searched the web, revisited the Io Mountain Database--which has expanded since I first built my model--added and corrected topography, then repainted in much greater detail than was practical in 2007.
This time around, though, I studied at such length and in such detail that I could make some speculations. Not Planetocopian speculations on life, on what makes a biosphere, but scientific ones. Yet from an artists's perspective! Close yet naïve observation by an Aspie attuned to patterns. With a loathing for jargon...
Eight years ago, I had doubts I'd caught the "real" color of Io; I assumed my eye and brush were just sloppy. This time around, I'm noticing how much my reference photos clash. Several reasons for it:
In most regions contrast and saturation are probably exaggerated; if several shots conflicted (and they did constantly) I favored shots showing fresh volcanic and tectonic activity. Hotspots are often lurid (sulfurous yellows, reds, olive greens) and contrasty (white sulfur dioxide snow next to black lava). Quieter regions are duller--the bright compounds decayed and the contrasts smoothed by hazy ash layers from distant vents.
But Io's inner hemisphere, the one always facing Jupiter, is artificially dulled--the probes never swung by that side, so all shots are either distant and fuzzy or close but very low-angle; details must be retrieved by triangulating glimpses on the horizon. This is often possible, though; for once it's a virtue Io's airless!
Io's fractal textures are too wild for me to capture fully. I can only paint details down to 10-20 km (6-12 mi)--my hand, brush and eye just can't do better. This is all the data we have for some parts of the inner hemisphere (facing Jupiter), but it barely hints at the crazy fractal patterns in close-ups from the outer hemisphere. My model, looked at closely, is actually rather restrained-looking next to the feverish reality. Jackson Pollock's dream.
Scalloped cliffs of Tvashtar (top) and Savitr, on Io, sculpted by Chris Wayan
The wild colors and patterns both draw the eye, making Io the iconic Jovian moon; but they have a hidden drawback. They reveal active regions pretty well, but because those colors are often sprayed-on (from eruptions near or far) they can camouflage local terrain--not just disguise the colors of local rock, but even hide relief.
Under the camouflage, Io has a lot of relief to hide! You'll notice I use some grayscale NASA photos below, shot in wavelengths that ignore the spray-on paintjob.
Io's one of the ruggedest worlds in the Solar System. The Io Mountain Database contains only 120-odd "mountains"--but that's way more than you think. On Io, a typical "mountain" is the size of an American state or European country. Those hundred-odd mountains alone cover 3-4% of Io's surface.
They're not just extensive; most are dramatic crags or mesas rising from a lava plain with few or no foothills, as distinct and separate as an island in a sea--Uluru rising from the Outback, not Everest or Fuji. But Uluru's a pebble next to these monster rocks: Io's mountains are typically 1-9 km high (3-30,000'), ranging up to 18 or so (eleven miles high!)--visible for 1-200 kilometers, even with Io's sharp curvature.
Io is cliffy too. Ionian rocks, suffused with gas, are stable under pressure but prone to explosive sapping when they're exposed to vacuum. There isn't much rubble--it's blasted away and buried under subsequent lava flows, I guess. So mountains tend to have sharp edges--the cliffs are gnawed inwards even as the mountain rock thrusts upwards. Such sapping can lead to strange swiss-cheese shapes like the mesas east of Tvashtar.
On Earth similar shapes arise from different sources--a cap of hard rock over soft can lead to mesas and labyrinths due to rain, or the sea may gnaw at coasts, creating cliffs, stacks, and terraces. But Io's peaks don't face external weathering--it's autodemolition!
There are no great basins as on Earth, Mars or Venus. But hundreds of smaller pateras (cliffwalled volcanic craters 10-100 km wide) yawn as much as 3 km deep (10,000'). 18 above the plains, 3 below; so Io's total relief is about 21 km.
Mars has a greater total relief--some 34 km, from Hellas Basin (8 km deep) to Mt Olympus (26 km). And there are huge cliffs, up to 6 km. But unlike Earth or Mars, whose tallest peaks, measured base to top, are shield volcanoes with gentle slopes, Io's tallest mountains are dramatic, with huge basal cliffs.
Tallest visible/fully exposed mountain, base to top:
Sheer cliffs? 1-2 km. Yosemite's Half Dome and El Capitan, some of the Norwegian and New Zealand fjords, Pakistan's Trango Tower, Patagonia's Torre Egger.
Cliffs of Nemea Planum,
6-7 km high (20-23,000')
Sheer cliffs? More and higher than Earth's. Lakshmi Planum (a plateau 3-4 km high, the heart of the Ishtar highlands) has calderas like Colette with cliffwalls a good 2 km high; nearby Sacajawea and the Valkyrie chain may together have 1000 km of cliffs over a kilometer high. Venus favors cliffs: explosive sapping like Io's to carve cliffs, slightly lighter gravity (less strain on rocks), and not much erosion. Here's a tour of Lakshmi's mountains and cliffs on a terraformed future Venus.
The highest true vertical cliffs: calderas such as the throat of Pavonis, as much as 6 km or 20,000' deep. Certainly Io's great rival for Barbaric Splendor. Here's a tour of a terraformed future Mars.
Long shadow of rock spires,
Hi'iaka Mts, 11 km high (36,000')
Highest cliffs? Well, Hi'iaka's northernmost peak (80°W, 2°N) appears to be a near-vertical crag some 11 km (36,000') high. Very steep at least.
The deepest "canyon", in northern Lei-Kung Fluctus, drops in scarps or cliffs from a (nameless) white northern mountain 11 km high into a narrow black crack--maybe Lei-Kung's lava well--penned by a south wall rising to 9200 m, higher than Everest--and that's the low side! The photos of that region are poor; those may just be rugged slopes.
The same is true of the Haemus Mountains in the far south; 11 km high, and they drop on the west into a chasm maybe 2-3 km deep--but it's all shadowy. Out of that 13-14-km drop, I suspect cliffs 5-6 km high, but can't be sure.
The highest sheer drop I'm sure of is Nemea Planum's east end; this sinuous plateau rises to about 4-5 km high and then drops into a chain of cliffwalled pateras perhaps 2 km deep; long, apparently vertical cliffs here drop 6-7 km! They may even overhang in spots where lava in the patera has lapped at them like the sea eroding coastal cliffs into stacks and arches. Anyway, tough rock! I think these Nemea cliffs are the tallest in the Solar System (at least on a world big enough so gravity makes you feel down as down).
When a local plume of lighter or hotter rock wants to rise, blocks may tilt or just pop up. Sometimes they come up as a unit, bursting from plains--a whaleback looking like Australia's Uluru. Often they sport plumes of white, purple or yellow around the base of their cliffs, where vents blast sideways onto the plain. Here's a rock nearly 100 km long and 4 km high (13,000'), looking, with its plumes, like a manylegged bug.
Distant shot in low-angled
sun, blurry but showing relief
A sharper but shadowless shot
reveals plumes at the rock's foot
Approximate color, from
two blurry distant shots
My rendering: a giant Uluru
with vents scalloping its base
Of course this is the sort of interpretive struggle I underwent all over Io. Easy in some places, hard in others--including here.
The striated/terraced Caucasus Mts (10.6 km or 35,000' high) near Pele
Some of these rocks-the-size-of-countries look like layer cakes, with roughly level lines of cliffs, like a crude topographical mockup built of layered cardboard. Each stage is likely a relic of the days when that level was the whole visible mountain. The cliffs are relics of the explosive sapping that afflicts many Ionian rocks when they're first exposed to vacuum, rising from the plains.
Shown to right: the Caucasus Mts (southeast of Pele). Grian Mons (15°W, 15°S) is another good example and Euxine Mons (125°W, 25°N, near Amirani) when seen in low sun looks likely.
Such peaks may be like marine terracing on Earth--where slowly rising coasts may not display smooth slopes but terraces--ancient beaches and cliffs. The source of the erosion's different here, but the effect's similar.
A weird, fascinating variant: the two-stage plateaus breaking up the Lei-Kung Fluctus, north of the white sea of Colchis.
Lei-Kung is a bizarre wriggle of black tormented fractal dragons worthy of Mordor.
But the twin Mt Dooms looming 9200 meters above it aren't volcanic, but (I think) a mass that upthrust, paused long enough to sap into two huge mesas tall as the Alps, then resumed the long upthrust, to Himalayan height this time--and sapped again into twin mesas ATOP a huge lower mesa.
The two-stage Lei-Kung Montes: mesas atop mesas
They're like two penthouses atop a gigantic sinuous hotel, with both white jets of sulfur dioxide "snow" and the black lava flows of Lei-Kung around it, bringing out the lower story's twisted shape.
I know the model is a bit confusing to eyes used to Earth topography; the NASA photos are even harder to interpret. But this is my best guess for this fascinating formation. It's either that or a team of Godzillas on bulldozers stripmined these highlands and those are the access roads. And I don't see any tractor treads in the dust, do you?
I believe these peculiar mountains link via lower ridges to the Nile Mts far to the west, forming a crescent-shaped range spanning 90 degrees and higher than the Himalaya. This is speculative; the sinuous purple ridge linking the two firmly established ranges is not in the Io Mountain Database. But I do, in some photos, see shadows suggesting considerable relief; just not on the spectacular scale of its neighbors. And the lava flows diverted around its base do reveal that the connecting hills exist; the only question is how high.
Here's a shot of the proposed complex, in my model. Top is north. Note that the scene's lit unnaturally (with the sun shining at a low angle from the North Pole); this brings out the relief better than any realistic east/west lighting. (My funding, like NASA's, is insufficient to tilt the actual moon, you see. "Make it do, or do without.")
Proposed Nile-Lei-Kung Range: 1: North Mt. Nile, 6.5 km (21,000'); 2, South Mt Nile, 9 km (29,600'); 3, winding ridge 3-4 km (10-13,000');
I don't insist on this exact configuration. Omit #8, the orange flatiron on the right, and the remaining seven form a neat curve with quite narrow gaps. I included #8 as an outlier because no others are near it and its height and type are like its neighbors. Judgment call.
This won't be the last mountain range I'll propose for Io that I haven't even seen mentioned or mapped! The point to take away is that chains do exist; few mountains here rise in isolation, any more than on Earth. It's just that on Io, lava flows and explosive sapping eat away the foothills, making connections harder to see.
Ionian Mts, twin ridge (top)
& Mt Pillan, cracked scallop
Ionian Mts, twin ridge (top)
& Mt Pillan, cracked scallop
The rising crust doesn't always form level mesas; it may also tilt the way a treeroot can lift a sidewalk pavement-square; low or no cliffs at one end, scarps 5-10 km high at the other, like Shakuru (north of Pele, east of Loki; 265-270°W, 25°N) or Egypt Planum (just south of Pele) and Mt Pillan (just north of Pele), notable for lateral vents at the foot of its cliffs, spewing white plumes hundreds of km (inactive and essentially invisible in NASA grayscale shot to left, which however nicely reveals the structure of the rising mass; vents recently active and prominent in other photos and my model, right).
Such wedges seem commoner in regions near huge vents, where paterae and mountains themselves are fewer but larger; is the crust thicker and/or tougher here?
Rising blocks of crust may also crack into pieces that hinge up and apart, leaving canyon-like gaps between. Such cracks may be single or multiple:
A long bulge, linear or arcuate, may crack down the middle as when double doors are ajar, creating twin ridges like the Ionian Mts (12-13 km or 8 miles high; NE of Pele; shown above, at top). The Mongibello Mts (merely Himalayan; 70°W, 25°N) and the nameless range north of Mongibello (11 km tall?, around 45°N) are two more examples of such twin ridges.
Multiple cracks can create pyramidal shapes or domes split by with forking chasms. The two eastern Boösaule Mts (7-8 km high; top of photo, below left) are huge though poorly photographed. The Danube Planum (heart of Pele; 3500 m high, a mere 11,000'; below right) and the northwestern peak of the Boösaule Mts (cracked lavender-white bulge on left of photo below left; 4100 m or 13,400') are lower but more visible.
Cracked pyramids in Boösaule Mts, near Pele
Danube Planum, cracked plateau around Pele's vent
Cluster of quite Earthlike volcanic cones near Atar Patera northeast of Loki; click to enlarge.
S-curve near Galai Patera (brown gourd shape, lower
Amid all these quite alien landforms I was surprised to find one patch of perfectly familiar ground--a family of volcanic cones 1-2 km high, northeast of Loki. True, near it is a caldera wider than any on Earth, but for a hundred miles or so it looks like the volcanoes of Kamchatka or Iceland. Even the scale, for once, is Terran.
NASA: white dotted S-curve
This may be Loki's influence; monster vents like this seem to suppress oversize Ionian mountains around them for hundreds of kilometers. My belief: Loki may be just the visible vent for a whole "iced-over" sea of molten sulfur, so bedrock in this region is kilometers down, and visible peaks like these are essentially islands in a sulfur sea with only their tips poking above the "ice".
West of the Boösaule Mountains, around Galai Patera, is a region of lava flows and lakes with peculiar meandering dotted lines, alone or in pairs These seem to be vents spewing sulfur dioxide 'snow'; it isn't clear if the dots are flat patches or hills. Pingos of 'ice' bursting through heavier strata? Or could they be something like the flowstone castles that geysers can form?
What causes these winding lines? No idea. Presumably the lines are faults--but such sinuous twists are unlike any Terran faults I know of. What this S-curve on an undrinkable lake reminds ME of isn't a natural wonder but an artificial one, an art project: the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake.
Not quite Spiral, but at least a Swirl.
Online text about Io speaks of its little-known, poorly photographed 'inner hemisphere' (no, Io's not contemplating its navel; the hemisphere always facing Jupiter). This is a slight exaggeration. Pretty good photos cover half this hemisphere, especially at the edges. True, many are at low angles. And the north pole and northern latitudes from around 15 east to 75 west are truly fuzzy, no close-ups available. South of the equator, the bad slice is narrower: only about 30 to 75 west, and the south pole's okay.
Here's a pair of shots showing the problem: a shot of the inner hemisphere, then a panorama of the sharp side centered roughly on Prometheus (this one's enlargeable. And gorgeous--one of the most beautiful sights in the Solar System.)
Io's inner hemisphere
Io's outer hemisphere: click to enlarge
Although the following shots of my interpretation of the Inner Hemisphere aren't standouts scenically, I'm including two here because this area's so poorly covered on Io sites and maps.
Colors of Io's poorly mapped inner hemisphere. Lei-Zi Fluctus (brown/white), left center. Ukko Patera (black crater on
yellow flanked by lavender patches) upper right. 'Snow' patch around Karei Patera (purple/gray/white) lower right.
My model is more detailed, brighter-colored and shows more relief in this area than published Io maps; but I spent serious time collating marginal shots, and I stand by the rich yellows browns and blacks of Lei-Zi Fluctus (butterfly-like lava flow in photo above) and in the areas around Ukko Patera (black spot on yellow, between lavender patches of sulfur dioxide snow, upper right).
One thing I'm sure is wrong: the lack of colorful detail inside pateras, which are often multicolored--red yellow green black. The heart of the bad patch just blurs such details together, to mud. But I'm sure they're there--sharper shots of Io all have them.
Relief: the photo below, shot in low-angle light emphasizing shadows, reveals a diagonal mountain chain slashing across the north. The well-lit peaks in the center to center-right are from 3.9 to 6.1 km high (13-20,000') and one of the peaks floating in shadow on the terminator (far right) reaches 8.2 km (26,500').
Low-angle sun shows diagonal mountain chain we'll dub the Ukko Montes on Io's ill-mapped inner hemisphere.
If you go back to the softer shot you can spot more mountains stretching northeast, even without shadows to help. Two orange mesas, 4.2 and 4.8 km high (13,700' & 16,000') have white plumes of sulfur dioxide snow outlining them, much like the Telegonus Mensae in Io's far south. Taken as a whole this mountain range is a good 1000 km long and Himalayan in height; yet it's unnamed and apparently unnoticed AS a chain on the Io maps I've seen. Let's dub them the Ukko Montes (since that's the only named patera associated with them).
Northwest of Ukko is a dark, mostly featureless plain, with only one known height, a lonely white peak near that dark little patera; it's a mere 3500 m tall (11,400'). Not even Fuji!
But a few hundred km past Not Even Fuji is a HUGE range, taller than anything on Earth. But still unnamed! I'll treat it below; it's an extension of the well-known chain starting with the Hi'iaka, Gish-Bar and Mongibello Mts, running northeast all the way to the pole.
My first impression of Io's distribution of features was: "Mysterious!" It looked random, like a starfield. But is it? Features are roundish and evenly distributed--every hundred km or two, another damn feature, sprinkled on the multicolored lava plains. A rock. A hole. A vent. No wonder it seems like a pizza--not just the colors! Salami slices and olives get placed--evenly, not randomly. Chaos is NOT even. Io suspiciously is.
But then what we see is selective--your eye goes not to Io's most massive features, but to its brightest colors--the red, yellow, black and white spots of active paterae. Random or not, they're ubiquitous. This alone is suggestive. Earth's inner heat gets vented mostly at plate boundaries. Not on Io! All over. Plates are either absent or they're small, just a few hundred km each. The spacing isn't too different, I'd like to point out, from the spacing of volcanoes at the edges of Earth plates--1-200 km apart is common in the Cascade Range I know best. If pressure builds up between them, it's just easier for it to escape laterally through an existing vent than to punch through the crust and create a new one. This Earthlike spacing suggests a crust solid enough to form plates, at least in many places. No crust? We'd see random. I don't. I see even.
The Io Mountain Database tentatively points out two subtle worldwide clusterings:
Mts c.80° W. South to north: Hi'iaka (11 km tall, 36,000'), Gish-Bar (yellow, in sun, 8 km), Mongibello (twin ridges, terminator, 8), Zal (diag. ridge, 4.5), unnamed mts (polar, 8-11)
Around Pele: Boösaule Mts (top right) 18 km high (57,000'), Pillan (lower right) 5.5 km, Caucasus (lower left) 10.6, and Egypt (left edge) 10
The poles are generally rougher, with more dark reddish rocks and more mountains and mesas; an equatorial belt has more smooth, pale "seas" where low broad calderas abound, like Colchis, Bosphorus and the unnamed patch from 0° west to 30. It's not as consistent as, say, Titan's equatorial dark belt of dried-up seas as well as polar lakes--more like Earth's patchy distribution of forest--on land only, mostly in the tropics, some patches at higher latitudes, but none at the poles.
At first glance it's hard to avoid seeing these white regions seas as iced-over seas with volcanic islands, especially Colchis, with its distinct coast and flat expanses. Is it possible these really are sulfur dioxide sea-ice covering liquid sulfur oceans? The stuff melts at mere hundreds of degrees, not thousands. If so, it's a hot, stinking, sterile parody of Europa's ice-covered oceans (and potential for life).
Or is that our bias? Life in Terran hotsprings and undersea vents flourish in heat nearly comparable to such sulfur seas. Who knows where life can evolve?
Io may have more sulfur seas than these white/lavender/yellow zones reveal. It's possible that the smooth plains surrounding huge vents like Pele and Loki are also seas of sulfur melted by the hot spot creating the vent--just camouflaged by layers of ejecta in other colors. Loki is especially suggestive--over a million square km around it with hardly a hill. Though cliffwalled pateras like the black pit of Dazhbog (top of photo below) or Pele's mountainous Danube Planum imply solid rock. But if Earth were iced over today, as it was 600 million years ago, Ionian astronomers could use this argument to say Hawaii proves the Pacific is a solid basalt plain... Looking at Europa, or northern Mars, we're quick to suspect iced-over seas; why not Io? Anti-sulfur bias?
Gish-Bar Mts (8 km /26,300') with
This equatorial belt of paler flats could be due to the heat of the sun. Yes, it's weak by Terran standards--equatorial soil should be just 10-20° Celsius warmer than polar rock, unlike our 50-degree difference. Still, even Titan (nearly twice as far out, with 30% as much sun) seems to have seasons precipitated by sunlight; Saturn's atmosphere does too. Maybe the slightly warmer temperatures of the equatorial belt favor whitish snows and break down brick-red sulfur compounds faster than at the poles.
Or, more likely, the full-on solar radiation of the tropics (not necessarily visible light; ultraviolet?) cracks such compounds faster.
But I can't see how a slightly less chilly surface could encourage more plains and low shield volcanoes, or discourage rugged mountains. That's topography. We want deep forces for that.
There's a plausible candidate: tidal warming. This effect is stronger in the tropics because these forces pull laterally, not north-south; the tropics offer more moon to massage. And of course, unlike sunlight, tidal stress runs deep indeed.
So I do believe in sulfur seas, showing up mostly in lower latitudes. At least spotty ones. Perhaps as spotty as our continents in their world-sea? But no less real for that.
Pateras gape at the feet of Io's mountains more often than chance. A long plateau often has calderas at the ends, like sockets or knobs at the end of bones. Hi'iaka (11 km tall, on equator at 70°W) and the Gish-Bar Mts (8 km tall) north of Hi'iaka have paterae at both ends (see left). On Pan Mensa (30-40°W, 50°S) the end paterae are highly visible, being snowcapped shield volcanoes. Single end-sockets are even more common--see Tvashtar (120°W, 60°N), nearby Savitr (7200 m tall, 125°W, 45°N) and Euxine Mons (125°W, 25°N). Not coincidentally, these three form a chain.
Mt Tohil, 9400 m (30,800') high, & patera
Next most common place for a patera: hugging the flank, often gnawing into it, excavating monster amphitheaters--Mt Tohil (160°W, 20°S), shown to right, the Carancho Mts (315°W, equatorial), and the Nyambe Mts (345°W, equatorial; amphiteaters on both east and west flanks), shown below left.
Nyambe Mts, 6.9 km tall (22,700'),
gnawed by THREE pateras
The bone-end ones are especially intriguing. If you see these paterae as part of the uplifting ridge, just a part that's nicely disguising this by exporting the stuff in lava flows... then you suddenly see chains of these enlarged mountains all over Io, not just around Tvashtar.
Mountains and pateras alternate in many places. And close-up photos, where available, often reveal actual bright lines--sometimes low scarps, often just cracks venting white sulfur "snow"--crossing lowlands, connecting the dots--like Tvashtar to Savitr to Euxine. These mountains ARE chains! Not always but often. The average one isn't alone, any more than the average star is.
How big are such ranges? One arc of peaks runs from the North Pole to 20° south, around 80° west; it then veers east, running to about 30° west and south, and then runs southeast to huge Mt Euboeia, second tallest on Io. From it the Iopolis-Charango branch runs 2000 km north to near Loki; a shorter eastern branch runs through Argo Mensa to link with the rings of mountains around Babbar and Pele. This range may not circle Io quite as clearly and extensively as, say, our Pacific Ring of Fire, but proportionately they're at least as long as the Andes or the Mid-Atlantic Ridge or the East African Rift and associated peaks; and just as high, too.
Io, south: the Telegonus Mensae, Illyricon, Mycenae, Bactria
TIMB; a possible plate?
Such lines of mensae, peaks, paterae and venting cracks can surround large areas much like a Terran plate boundary. Example: the Telegonus Mensae, Illyricon, Mycenae and Bactria seem to form a plate--call it TIMB.
Proposed boundary: start at Mt Tohil, below and to the left of Culann Patera, that big red and yellow ring near the top; from Tohil (rough dark area) go east through Bactria along a chain of mesas 1-4 km high (well camouflaged under lilac, yellow and pink ash), to the Telegonus Mensae (white/lavender mostly; fresh vents), then south along unnamed mensae (brown mesas 3-4 km high with white vents along their feet) and actively venting cracks (thin white line on brown, at bottom) near the South Pole, then up again (unnamed sinuous mensae, streaks, cracks and peaks up to 7 km high!) to the Dorian Mountains (off photo to left) and east along a tan, almost invisible mesa chain (still 1-4 km high, visible in low light) to Tohil again.
Is TIMB truly a tectonic plate in the Terran sense? I don't know. But consider how long it took--centuries--to recognize plate boundaries on Earth!
So I'll stick my neck out and propose it.
If Io does have small plates, is there lateral motion, do they drift? I'm doubtful. Io's mantle may not need to move laterally as on Earth; it looks rather easy to punch through that thin crust and vent any pressure on the spot. Even if there is lateral motion, the crust may be too fractured (or elastic) to move over long stretches (of space OR time!) the way you can with Terran plates--ours record history going back hundreds of millions of years.
Io's just too busy for tracks to last long even if they DID exist.
On the other hand, Io has a rather unEarthly force that puts even motionless plates under lateral pressure, pushing them to overlap at boundaries. Here's how it works:
Io's volcanoes belch out enough rock to resurface the whole moon in not-so-deep time. We tend to think volcanoes are wells with an infinite supply, and on Earth and Venus for all practical purposes they are. Not on Io. So much volume's ejected so quickly that in deep time the mantle steadily shrinks; lava flows covering Io's surface a kilometer deep (as may well happen every million years or so) mean the old crust (as it sinks under the new layers) will have to become a shell 6.28 km less in circumference, and enough magma's been ejected to do just that. Crunch!
Even without lateral motion driven by convection in the mantle, platelets squeeze and want to overlap, enouraging faults and extruding mountains. It's slower than Terran drift--for a plate like the one I propose in Telegonis-Illyricon-Mycenae-Bactria, this relentless IRS (Ionian Recycling Squeeze) would be millimeters a year at most, not centimeters as in some fast faults on Earth--but Io has time. And the Slow Squeeze is constant, relentless, and worldwide, always adding to local pressures and local movements (if any).
I'm not a geologist; just an artist who's looked closely at Io for eight years; so I may misinterpret the cause and meaning of the patterns I see. But I'm pretty sure the patterns are there to see. Scientific training can hone your eye, sensitize you to patterns worth seeing; but life-drawing classes promote a sort of active naïveté--to see what's in front of you, eject all certainty about what they are. While sculpting, and again while writing up these speculations, I deliberately avoided reading too much about these structures from nice, human, Earth-trained geologists, and just looked and looked and looked. I wanted to keep my eye naïve enough so I can see. Theory often blinds.
So discount my sculptural crudities, beware my geological inadequacies... but at least consider my case for faults, meandering dotted ventlines, mountain chains, rings of fire, sulfur seas, crustal crunch and miniplates.
Or... just kick back and enjoy the color. All those moons in their sober business suits... then this.
Mt Grian (B&W lens, center)
& unnamed snow-sea 0-40° W
Dazhbog Patera & my guess at
(blurry photos) of arctic Vivasvant
Range, up to 5400 m (17,800')
Labyrinthine flows
round Isum 'Peninsula'
in the Colchis 'Sea'
Babbar Patera, a
sooty shield volcano
as big as Hawaii
Pele (red) & Babbar (black)
Lurid lavaflows, Tvashtar (top
left) to Zal Dorsa (red, center)
Right: curving Nyambe Mts,
6.9 km (22,700') high, with three
pateras gnawing into their flanks
Loki (bottom), Amaterasu (center)
and Dazhbog (black/green, top)
Done! Free! FREE! Here endeth my foray into realism. Such as it was. Dream well, little rabbits.
------Chris Wayan, April 2015
Amirani Fluctus (black backwards L) and the psychedelic stained plains around Tvashtar, by Chris Wayan.
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oy, you've come across a problem plaguing most people who model w/ NURBs/CAD. NURBs models do not map UVs properly because during the meshing stage (when the program turns the surfaces from mathematical curves into a mesh it can use for rendering) there is no information translated that creates proper edge flow...thus...when you're polygonal modeling, you account for this and unwrap the UVs in your modeling program. See this very long thread for way more reference;https://www.keyshot.com/forum/index.php?topic=10828.0Short answer; if you want to UV map something, you need UVs (nurbs doesn't have proper UVs when it becomes a mesh because computers cannot figure out that one edge continues onto another without you manually telling it to do so... Essentially, if you want to UV unwrap something, best to start the modeling with polygons instead of NURBs (Rhino). There are SOME ways around this, but no magic bullet. Look into the ZRemesher from ZBrush. I have had some minimal success there, but still takes a bit of cleanup.If you want to get into polygonal modeling and unwrapping your UVs properly, I suggest Blender, it is free.Disclaimer, I am by no means an expert. But I have come across this problem a lot, thus I've tried everything.
Ok , I do believe is possible to UV in rhino...not sure. I use Modo so I can re do the ring in modo!Thanks a lot
Quote from: zooropa on September 26, 2017, 02:06:35 pmOk , I do believe is possible to UV in rhino...not sure. I use Modo so I can re do the ring in modo!Thanks a lotI think Rhino does indeed have UV controls, however...at that point you are still in NURBs...once you turn that NURBs data into a mesh (needed for rendering) the UV data is lost. (The surfaces may still have UVs technically, but each 'surface' becomes its own UV map, there is no continuity). At least, that is my understanding of what's happening. Someone more experienced could clarify. Thankfully, what you're creating is fairly simple to reproduce in polygonal modeling!
Glad to assist, if you don't mind, can you share your findings from the Rhino forum for the rest of us?


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More posts tagged:
NASA / science / space / spaceships
An exploration of life aboard the International Space Station, and the surprising reasons the mission is still worthwhile
I recently read an article in The Atlantic titled 5,200 Days in Space that is incredible. We use words like "awesome" and "amazing" pretty cavalierly most of the time. The fact that there have been human beings continually living in outer space for almost fifteen YEARS is awesome and amazing.
It is mind-boggling to think that the United States is spending about $8,000,000.00 per day to help maintain the International Space Station (ISS).
And some of the details are really just hard to fathom, like this tidbit about the way the station was built:
[T]he station's exterior elements have a remarkable engineering feature: although the station is made up of more than 100 components, with a surface area spanning almost three acres, most bolts the astronauts work with are a single size. That way astronauts almost never have to worry about changing sockets. Imagine constructing a whole building that way.
If you have a few minutes to spare, it's a fascinating and well-written article.


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It's easy
How to apply for the UBS Career Comeback Program
You have
Rich experiences. And that's what we're looking for.
Maybe you've been focusing on your family, or pursuing a passion. At any rate, you have taken a break from your career and are looking to return. And are seeking a collaborative, exciting, diverse place to bring your talent and skills. Like UBS.
You're a good fit for our program if you:
- have been on a career break for approximately two (or more) years
- want to return to work on a full-time or part-time basis
- have experience working as a functional expert or in a leadership position
- are a good fit with our three keys (our Pillars, Principles and Behaviors)
- have a background that fits the seniority of the position for which we're recruiting
- have experiences and skills that match the roles for which we're recruiting (financial services experience is a plus)
- are fluent in English (and additional languages, as required by role)
Register your interest
How to apply
It's easy.
Get ready
Update your resume/CV and LinkedIn profile
Prepare references and diplomas, if available
Write a cover letter about why we fit and what kind of roles you're interested in (that'll help us finding the right position for you).
Save all documents as pdfs so you can upload them with your application.
- Apply! Fancy returning to work, but not to the same role? Let us know – our recruiters will try to match you to roles suiting your transferable skills.
- If we match you to an open role, one of our recruiters will reach out to walk you through the interview process.
- You haven't heard back from us? No worries – we hire on an ongoing basis and new roles open up all the time.


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The Red City, a painting by Marianne von Werefkin from 1909, stands exemplary for Expressionism which emerged in Northern Europe in the early 20th century and quickly spread through all of the arts and as well also in architecture. So lets make a short walk through the vivid Falkenhagener Feld in Berlin.
The Falkenhagener Feld was originally an area used by allotments and agriculture and closes west of the old town of Spandau, the core of the district Spandau in Berlin. Between 1923 and 1927 the architect Richard Ermisch realized here the erection of a huge estate in Expressionist style along the Zeppelinstr. and Falkenseer Chaussee.
At the junction of both streets four eye-catching towers form the very centre of this interesting architecture. Till today these varied houses look really strikingly modern although almost one hundred years old.


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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009
In 1867 Hans Christian Andersen was subrenting an apartment from a female photographer, Thora Hallager, at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. This photo of Andersen was taken in October 1867.
Daily Thoughts 6/16/2009
I did not have any books to read on the train with me this morning. I picked up a copy of the New York Times for today instead. I read about books. There was this article from the Times which I found entertaining. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/books/16kaku.html?ref=books We have the title Fools Gold, but don't have the title Dumb Money by Gillian Tett.
Today has been a steady day. I have done some more weeding in the oversize books, this time it was in the music and film books. I mainly looked for very old technical books. There were a number of books that needed minor repairs as well. The repairs were mainly replacing old plastic covers on the books or mending tears in the books. This will go to technical services for mending.
I also spent some time thinking about doing a survey for the library. Sometimes it is good to think about things and plan. Our computer technician put a copy of Professor Teaches tutorials on the different microsoft products, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher. I have to go back and do more of the tutorial on Publisher. I may do a bookmark on writing. I am caught up on most of the detail work around the library. I kept up the current events display and checked the new books display this morning.
I also updated the list of websites for reviews which we use in collection development. It is mostly internet sites on books and graphic novels right now. Many of the sites are in my sidebar.
My diet is going well. I am down a pants size. I still do my exercises from the book Yoga RX and listen to the cd from I Can Make You Thin. It is working slowly and steadily for me. I still have quite a way to go.
I picked up two more books to read, Creative Capitalism A Conversation With Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Other Economic Leaders by Michael Kinsley and The Insiders Guide To Creating Comics and Graphic Novels by Andy Schmidt.
There is another business book which looks interesting, A Complaint Is A Gift, Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong, 2nd Edition by Janelle Barlow and Claus Moller. This was recommended by a librarian at the Westchester Library Association conference. I started reading this book on the train on the way home. It is about how to use complaints for "service recovery." The authors point out that most people who complain are regular customers. People who don't complain and have problems simply don't come back. Complaints are an opportunity to fix problems with service and products. The book is mainly focused on businesses, but I think it applies to service agencies and libraries as well.
I spent a little time on Google Webmaster Tools. It was rather interesting. Apparently the words most used to find my blog are "mature manga" and "jim collins good to great". The two sites with the most links to my site are http://www.chicagohistoryjournal.com and http://www.apolloalliance.org . The Chicago History Journal is a fine organization and the Apollo Alliance is a very progressive alternative energy organization. Both are excellent sites. I can say that the Apollo Alliance does have a book based on them Apollo's Fire Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.
Posted by Book Calendar at 3:45 AM
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They Needed Help Cleaning Their Condo
When I went to my son's condo to stay for a few weeks to recuperate from surgery, I knew that he needed some help. He is always the one who comes to visit me, so this was very rare for me to be in his condo even for a regular visit. He works long hours, and his wife travels a good bit for her own work. They have two older children who are quite busy as well. I decided to look into cleaning services in Singapore because it was obvious that none of them had much time to devote to the actual cleaning of the condo.
It seemed that they waited until she got home from one of her trips to clean the way it should be cleaned. I am not saying that the condo was messy by any means, but it was also not getting the proper cleaning that it needed either. The first time the cleaning woman came, I was there on my own. We were able to talk about different things that needed done so we could find the perfect package for my son and his family.
When he came home from work that first time, he was a bit frustrated. He actually thought that I had been the one to clean, which made me laugh. I am good at many things, but even I was not that good to clean everything in the condition that I was in. He was so impressed when I told him that Kleepers had done the cleaning, and he felt a bit silly too for not thinking to have a professional service come in. The one who benefited from this the most is his wife. She can come home and just relax now instead of spending a full day getting the condo back into great shape.Uncategorized | Comments Off


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You've got an enviable group of greens in practically every corner of the home. If it comes to boho decor, you won't ever run out of options. Thus, you don't need to resort to putting more wallpaper up, and you don't need to rip the drywall down, you only need to find creative.
Now that it's beginning to warm up, outdoors is where to be. Everyone wants to go another mile to host a Sangeet night unlike any other. Since an RV is a little space, it's a really doable project in a few weekends time!


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We are a global healthcare recruitment agency providing specialist permanent or interim healthcare professionals to the private and public sectors.
We provide pre-screened candidates to fill single or multiple full time, part time, contract or interim positions.
We have been awarded the HealthTrust Europe framework, highlighting that we are a quality supplier of healthcare professionals.
We are committed to providing a quality service and are ISO 9001 accredited, ensuring we adopt a consistent, structured and organised approach to our recruitment activities.
To further underpin our commitment to quality, we are a member of the leading industry body, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), and work to the high standards of their Code of Practice.
Our team will provide support across the entire recruitment process from helping you with the role specification, candidate profiling and remuneration mapping to screening and assessment.
We specialise in healthcare recruitment for the following roles:
Healthcare companies are constantly under high demand to deliver a better quality of care for patients, for a reduced cost.
Jigsaw Business Group are a healthcare consultancy working with companies in the industry to provide value driven business support at strategic, tactical and operational levels tailored to individual business needs. We offer a complete end to end solution or bespoke services to fit particular healthcare business needs.
Our services include lean deployment, Project management, supply chain development, service improvement (quality and delivery) and cost reduction programmes. For personal development we offer executive coaching and senior management mentoring, skills analysis, personal development planning/measurement.
You can find us on HealthTrust Europe Consultancy Framework (Lot 1 and 4).
We are also a supply chain management consultancy for the healthcare industry, providing customers with the best practical solutions for their supply chain challenges by creating a sustainable programme of process improvement and materials cost reduction.
We can undertake a full project from initial diagnostic study to full implementation or supplement existing practices with bespoke projects.
We design, build and deliver bespoke assessment and training packages for the private and public sectors. These can be stand-alone packages for specific development needs or part of the 'knowledge transfer' by our Business Improvement or Supply Chain practitioners during an intervention project, ensuring the sustainability of any improvements long after we have completed our part in the improvement process.
Our capabilities within the healthcare industry have led us to achieve full membership into HeathTrust Europe, with access to their framework.
At Jigsaw Business Group, we have proudly grown our business through reputation and recommendation and have developed specific services and tailored business models to meet the challenges of a broad range of specialised sectors, sectors in which we have operational and practical experience. We have built a team of experts supplemented by a network of highly skilled associates and can scale our resources to meet varying demands.
At Jigsaw we think we are a bit different. We all had careers in the industries that we now service. If you are looking to fill permanent or interim positions, improve processes, productivity and profitability or improve and develop your workforce skills or supply chain, talk to the team that has genuine insight and understanding and will deliver 'solutions that fit'.
Email us on: [email protected]
Phone us on +44 (0) 191 228 6596
Jigsaw Group
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Upcoming Randall King Events
Discount Randall King Tickets for sale! The Ticket Lodge has largest selection of cheap and premium tickets often including VIP Randall King tickets and Randall King Meet and Greet passes. As a discount supplier of Randall King tickets, the Ticket Lodge can often offer the lowest prices around. Also be sure to check our list of Randall King Promo Codes to save even more off our already low prices!
We are a resale marketplace, not the venue. Prices are set by sellers and may be above or below face value.
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Starting a new Student Growth Group can be daunting. Do not worry, because this blog will help you feel confident and competent, equipped to lead your students.
Here Are the Three Steps to be Equipped
- Learn the System: The system is quite easy if you view this blog post. You will get login information from me via email.
- Know the Curriculum and Schedule: You can choose the Curriculum you would like to use.
- Be confident in your first meeting: Understand how to get off on the right foot.
Luckily, you do not have to do any marketing if you do not want to. I will take the initiative to reach out to students for your group. If you have any questions, I am always a text or call away.


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If Social Security benefits replace approximately 40% of your pre-retirement income, where do you find the other 60% –and, of particular relevance today, where do you find the other 60% when interest rates are near historic lows? Today's article outlines one "simple solution" to this challenge, noting that "It can be more volatile than a savings account. And it can require you to do a little homework. But it can offer the retirement income you want." For the solution in question – which involves diversifying across three different types of investment vehicles offering yields up to 7% or more – CLICK HERE.
Month: June 2019
De-Mything Your Retirement Accounts
"Sell in May and go away". "The January effect". The "Santa Claus rally". "Financial hurricane season". When it comes to whether these seasonal investing adages work, the author of today's article argues that they work "just often enough to sustain their myths" – and just often enough to negatively impact your retirement savings if you make investment decisions based on them. For more, CLICK HERE.
A 3-Fund "Autopilot" Dividend Portfolio
How can you go about building a portfolio that would provide your loved ones with reliable income while requiring little to no maintenance? The author of today's article lays out one option: A "three-fund portfolio [that] will hand us a diverse collection of investments built to hold up in any market, throw off a steady 8% dividend and pay dividends monthly, to boot." For the three actively managed funds making up this "autopilot" dividend portfolio, CLICK HERE.
The Unavoidable Retirement Inflation Bet
"Never overlook the pernicious and toxic impact of inflation over periods as long as retirement," warns the author of today's article. He outlines why inflation over the next several decades could actually be significantly higher than currently assumed – and how, if that proves to be the case, it would make inflation-indexed annuities (or real annuities), generally considered very expensive, more valuable. For more – including why the author concludes that "you can't avoid making an implicit bet on inflation no matter what you do" – CLICK HERE.
Why – And How – To Save For Retirement Like Social Security Doesn't Exist
Given the fiscal state of the Social Security system, the author of today's article advises that, when it comes to financing your retirement, "You have to assume you're not going to get much help from our government, you're not going to get much help from your employer, and your financial future is all up to you. And that means you need to save more and save a lot." So what are some strategies that will allow you to retire rich – or at least retire comfortably – without relying on Social Security? CLICK HERE.
How To "Win With Small Steps" – And Boost Your Retirement Savings By $800,000 Or More
If you're one of the (too) many Americans that have too little – or nothing at all – in the way of retirement savings, a simple strategy that could boost your savings by $800,000 (and possibly even more) sounds like something worth having a look at – and that's exactly what the author of today's article outlines. And while getting the maximum benefit from this strategy requires having many years until retirement, it can still make a significant difference for those close to retirement. For more on this "win with small steps" strategy, CLICK HERE.
The Reality About Real Estate And Retirement Riches
"Owning a home is wonderful, but don't bank on real estate as your chief retirement investment," advises the author of today's article, which looks at the reality when it comes to looking to real estate as a source of retirement riches. What's the problem with banking on homes for retirement income – especially given the fact that many people have seen big gains from buying starter homes? For more, CLICK HERE.
Cracking The SECURE Act
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act – or SECURE Act – has been overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives as a purported means of improving retirement savings options. In today's article, a financial planner with 20 years of experience looks at how the SECURE Act, which, among other things, raises the age for required withdrawals from retirement accounts, would impact retirement savers and how it differs from the retirement legislation being proposed in the Senate (The Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act). For more, CLICK HERE.
Why Your Retirement Glide Path May Be Off – And How To Refine It
New research from well-known, Boston-based money management firm GMO has an important warning for retirement savers of all ages when it comes to their glide paths (the gradual reduction in one's allocation to equities as they get closer to – and then enter –retirement). As today's article outlines, the research indicates that "No matter how young you are, chances are that you are too heavily invested in equities." What is the potential flaw in how glide paths have been determined up until now – and what might more appropriate glide paths look like? CLICK HERE.
New Thinking On – And Innovative Ideas For – Retirement
Robots and a smart fridge keeping you from having to go into a nursing home. Some new (and simple) math for retirement saving. New alternatives to purchasing long-term care insurance. The retirement community of the future. There are among what may be the best new ideas in retirement as, thanks to increasing longevity and the changing nature of work, traditional "institutions, financial instruments and even our vocabulary no longer seem adequate to cope with the challenges of retirement." For more on these retirement innovations, CLICK HERE.


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With Insight
Have you ever thought of practicing meditation. Perhaps taking the next step and teaching it?
Today on the show we welcome Dawn Mauricio. Dawn is a long time yoga teacher turned full time meditation instructor. Vivacious, fun, and insightful, she shares with us some highlights of her path. This includes stories about playing basketball, surviving intensive retreats and finding wisdom within them, how she dealt with spending over 150 days away from home last year, and much more!
A Fresh Take
Dawn's insight on how meditation doesn't have to be a serious all-or-nothing endeavor is the type of sweet wisdom that connects to the core. Just one of her many incisive takes!
We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did!
Want to find out more about Dawn and where you can practice meditation with her? Check out her website.
Show Notes.
The Spirit Rock retreat centre.
Time Markers
[1:50] Dawn's Superpower is remembering people's names.
[6:00] She tells us about her experience playing basketball as a teenager.
[9:50] On how she managed a year being away from home 41% of the time.
[11:10] Spirit Rock.
[12:45] "It's like being drafted by the Golden State Warriors, let's update our references." Dawn puts the SMACK DOWN.
[14:30] On navigating the application process to join the Spirit Rock training.
[16:10] Dawn gives us a Four Noble Truths 101.
[19:10] "How much energy it takes to hold on to an opinion or a story."
[20:35] Dawn tells us about the meditation tradition she identifies with, Western Insight.
[22:15] On deepening practice through play.
[24:20] On different lineages within Vipassana and their distinct approaches to the practice.
[28:00] How the right team can create a healthy dynamic of accountability within spiritual organizations.
[30:00] What to look for in a good teacher and a good organization.
[32:40] Dawn's transition out of teaching postural yoga and into becoming a full-time meditation instructor began in 2013 and lasted five years! Playing the long game!
[35:40] "Whatever we do with a sincere heart is practice."
[37:40] On the challenges and opportunities of long retreats.
[42:00] The "Neo: Travel Your Mind" meditation app.
[44:30] En-Lightning round.


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How To Ensure That Your HVAC System Is Free Of Legionnaires Disease
You've heard of the recent Legionnaires' Disease outbreak in New York. The condition spread so quickly that more than 100 people were affected and ten have died. People living in the infected South Bronx building as well as people living six –seven kilometers away were affected with the disease. You are worried as you have a HVAC system in your building as well and you have a weak respiratory system. How do you make sure that building/residence HVAC systems are disinfected and clean? Let's find out. Carry out a visual inspection of your building's HVAC system. Check for particulate matter in the air vents and ensure that there is musty or dusty odor when the system is switched on. Make sure that your filters are replaced at least once in two months. Your HVAC system will have evaporator coils and condenser coils. These are very susceptible to fungus and mold growths. You may not be able to clean the coils at home by yourself. Anti-microbial treatments may be necessary. Regular maintenance is absolutely necessary. For a combined heating and cooling system, a maintenance check is necessary in the spring and fall. For a cooling system, an annual maintenance before the...View Article Read More


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Alonso says IndyCar test will not decide 2019 plans
Fernando Alonso says his IndyCar test shortly after announcing his impending retirement from Formula 1 is "coincidence" and will not influence his decision to race in IndyCar for 2019.
Motorsport.com reported earlier this month that Alonso would likely test a 2018 Indycar with support from Andretti at Barber on September 5, following IndyCar's race at Portland this weekend, and this has since been confirmed by McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
Alonso then admitted during the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Silverstone that the test was an "option" before McLaren confirmed the private test on Friday.
The McLaren driver says that his IndyCar test was scheduled months ago, meaning it is not linked to his post-F1 future.
"It's a bit of a coincidence that I announced I was leaving F1 and now I'm doing this test, but it was scheduled for months and therefore people are talking more about it," he said.
"I like to test all kinds of cars. Last year Andretti wanted me to test the car with a road track configuration.
"We had no time, and this year we have the chance, but it's not a key day ahead of next year to decide whether I do it [IndyCar] or not.
"It's just a test to have a bit of fun and to see what the cars are like with a normal configuration.
"But my decision for next year will not be based on Wednesday [the test day]. On Thursday I won't have a clearer picture. More or less I have everything decided in my head."
The IndyCar test is likely to be conducted with Andretti support at the venue where he first experienced IndyCar, having visited the Barber race weekend in the build-up to his 2017 Indianapolis 500 assault.
September deadline for McLaren decision
Confirming Alonso's Barber test, Brown said that McLaren will make a decision on a potential IndyCar future in September, as it weighs up whether it competes full-time in the series or just race in the Indy 500.
It could also still opt against racing in the American series at all.
"Fernando is testing next Wednesday in an Andretti car at Barber and that's for him to evaluate what an Indycar feels like on a road course," said Brown.
"From there he'll start to take a decision on what he wants to do next year and clearly, IndyCar is one of the series under consideration, we're very much doing the same and I think we'll make a decision sometime this month on whether we push forward with the Indy [500], IndyCar or doing nothing.
"Ultimately [there are] three decisions we need to make in September."
McLaren's IndyCar exploration has involved talks with both Honda and Chevrolet over an engine supply and Motorsport.com understands it is favouring the latter.
That could be a potential complication for Andretti, which uses Honda engines, with McLaren exploring an affiliation with the IndyCar team.
Other options mooted include a takeover of the financially struggling Harding Racing team or a partnership with the Chevrolet-powered Ed Carpenter Racing squad.
McLaren had approached both Penske's Will Power and Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon over a seat with the prospective two-car team, but both opted to sign new deals with their current outfits.
Despite the September deadline outlined by Brown, Alonso has previously stated he would not make a decision on his post-F1 future until "maybe October".
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble, Adam Cooper, Scott Mitchell
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