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AsteriaStar
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

Sources

The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.

  • 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.