Ariel's
transecting valleys |
PIA01356
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This
highest-resolution Voyager 2 view of Ariel's terminator shows a complex
array of transecting valleys with super- imposed impact craters. Voyager
obtained this clear-filter, narrow-angle view from a distance of 130,000
km and with a resolution of about 2.4 km. |
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Image
Credit: NASA |
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Particularly
striking to Voyager scientists is the fact that the faults that bound the
linear valleys are not visible where they transect one another across the
valleys. Apparently these valleys were filled with deposits sometime after
they were formed by tectonic processes, leaving them flat and smooth. Sinuous
rilles (trenches) later formed, probably by some flow process. Some type
of fluid flow may well have been involved in their evolution. |
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