Conamara Chaos

9°42′N 87°18′E / 9.7°N 87.3°E / 9.7; 87.3[1]

"Ice rafts" in Conamara Chaos
Enhanced-color regional view of Conamara Chaos, showing its location south of the intersection of two large "tripleband" lineae. White areas are ejecta rays from the large (26-km diameter) crater Pwyll 1000 km to the south

Conamara Chaos is a region of chaotic terrain on Jupiter's moon Europa. It is named after Connemara (Irish: Conamara) in Ireland due to its similarly rugged landscape.[2]

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 liquid ocean below Europa's icy surface.

  1. ^ "Conamara Chaos". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. USGS Astrogeology Research Program.
  2. ^ Pappalardo, Robert (2009). Europa. University of Arizona Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-8165-2844-8.