The gray bands on Europa Original Research Article

The fracture pattern around some gray bands on Europa has been investigated by edge and color enhancement techniques applied to some of the new Galileo images. The analysis supported the theoretical explanation on the origin of gray bands, namely that they took their origin from fracturing of the icy lithosphere, later the two margins moved away from each other leaving place for a newly formed strip of icy crust. The processed pictures reveal an older population of gray bands more clearly than the original images. Interestingly enough the newer gray band is cutting the old one at quite large angle of ∼70°. The measurement of ridge-width carried out inside the bands gave the same results of about 0.9 km independently of age.