Ganymede: Stair-step scarps in dark terrain | PIA02582 | ||
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NASA's Galileo spacecraft took this image of dark terrain within Nicholson Regio, near the border with Harpagia Sulcus on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. The ancient, heavily cratered dark terrain is faulted by a series of scarps. | ||
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Image
Credit: JPL,
Brown University |
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NASA's Galileo spacecraft took this image of dark terrain within Nicholson Regio, near the border with Harpagia Sulcus on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. The ancient, heavily cratered dark terrain is faulted by a series of scarps. | ![]() |
The
faulted blocks form a series of 'stair-steps' like a tilted stack of books.
On Earth, similar types of features form when tectonic faulting breaks the
crust and the intervening blocks are pulled apart and rotate. This image
supports the notion that the boundary between bright and dark terrain is
created by that type of extensional faulting. North is to the right of the picture and the Sun illuminates the surface from the west (top). The image is centered at -14 degrees latitude and 320 degrees longitude, and covers an area approximately 16 by 15 kilometers. The resolution is 20 meters per picture element. The image was taken on May 20, 2000, at a range of 2,090 kilometers. |
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