A "bulge" in the F-Ring?!?

Viewing Saturn's Rings very close to edge-on produces some puzzling effects, as these 2 images of the F-Ring demonstrate: the upper image was acquired from less than 1/10th of 1° beneath the RingPlane and shows a mysterious bulge. Such a feature has not been seen previously by the Cassini spacecraft from this angle. It is possible that, because of the very shallow viewing angle, the Cassini spacecraft's view takes a long path through the Ring, making very faint material visible. It also may be that an embedded object of about 1 Km stirs up the neighboring ring particles to create a bulge. Alternatively, an impact into an embedded moonlet that was covered with debris could produce a cloud like this. Images taken by the Voyager spacecrafts showed clumps that might have been produced in these ways. Cassini's investigations will help to determine the vertical extent of such clumps and understand their origins.
The lower image was obtained from less than a hundredth of a degree beneath the ringplane. Across the center of the rings is a dark lane, giving them an appearance not unlike that of a spiral galaxy, seen edge-on.