Feature type

Chaos Terrain

A jumble of broken, tilted blocks of crust, often where a surface has been disrupted from below — as on Europa, where it may mark places the ice shell interacts with the ocean beneath.

In brief

Disrupted terrain of broken, tilted blocks.

Examples of this feature

Cantaloupe TerrainSurface feature
Triton
The strange, dimpled surface of Neptune's moon Triton, resembling the skin of a cantaloupe — a young, resurfaced landscape unlike anywhere else, imaged by Voyager 2.
Conamara ChaosSurface feature
Europa
A region of Europa where the icy crust has broken into a jumble of tilted blocks 'rafts' set in refrozen slush — evidence that the surface interacts with the ocean below.

Knowledge connections

Group includesConamara Chaos
Group includesCantaloupe Terrain

Sources

Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.

NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.

Loading…