Facts about Ariel's Fault Scarps
- 07
Ariel's fault scarps display evidence of multiple generations of faulting, with younger scarps crosscutting older ones, indicating repeated episodes of crustal fracturing separated by millions of years.
- 06
Voyager 2's 1986 flyby captured the first detailed images of Ariel's fault scarps, revealing a heavily fractured surface that suggested the moon experienced significant crustal stress during its geological history.
- 05
Impact cratering on Ariel's surface appears less frequent than on neighboring moons, suggesting the fault scarps may have experienced ongoing resurfacing or erosion over billions of years.
- 04
The most prominent fault scarps on Ariel strike predominantly in a north-south direction, suggesting they formed during a period of significant stress from the moon's internal cooling and contraction.
- 03
Comparisons between Voyager 2 imagery and modern analysis suggest Ariel's fault scarps reveal a complex internal structure with distinct layers of icy and rocky material.
- 02
Ariel's fault scarps reach heights of up to 11 kilometers, making them among the most dramatic topographic features on any moon in the outer solar system.
- 01
Spanning approximately 620 kilometers across Uranus's moon Ariel, these fault scarps were likely created by tidal heating and internal geological activity billions of years ago.