Conamara Chaos is a region of chaotic terrain on Jupiter's moon Europa. It is named after Conamara in Ireland.
Conamara Chaos is a landscape produced by the disruption of the icy crust of Europa. The region consists of rafts of ice that have moved around and rotated. Surrounding these plates is a lower matrix of jumbled ice blocks which may have been formed as water, slush, or warm ice rose up from below the surface. The region is cited as evidence for a subsurface ocean below Europa's icy surface.
Famous quotes containing the word chaos:
“Before the land rose out of the ocean, and became dry land, chaos reigned; and between high and low water mark, where she is partially disrobed and rising, a sort of chaos reigns still, which only anomalous creatures can inhabit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)