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Messina Chasmata

Chasm system on Titania

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The Messina Chasmata /mɛˈsnə ˈkæzmətə/ is the largest canyon or system of canyons on the surface of the Uranian moon Titania, named after a location in William Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing. The 1,492 km (927 mi) long feature includes two normal faults running NW-SE, which bound a down-dropped crustal block forming a structure called a graben. The graben cuts impact craters, which probably means that it was formed at a relatively late stage of the moon's evolution, when the interior of Titania expanded and its ice crust cracked as a result. The Messina Chasmata has only a few superimposed craters, which also implies being relatively young. The feature was first imaged by Voyager 2 in January 1986.

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This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Messina Chasmata, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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