Agenor Linea Flyover

This animation showing a flyover of the region named Agenor Linea on Europa was created using stereo imaging data obtained by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The animation has a resolution of approximately 55 meters per pixel.

Agenor Linea is an unusually bright, white band on Europa that stretches 1,400 kilometers across the moon's face. The feature was one of the more intriguing features seen during Voyager 2's low resolution peek at the moon in 1979. Surface details seen here suggest to scientists a combination of different types of faults (strike-slip and compressional faulting) not unlike parts of the San Andreas fault system in California.

This section of Agenor Linea is 20 kilometers across with only a few hundred meters of height between its highest and lowest elevations. At several points in the flyover, regions of disrupted "chaos terrain" appear adjacent to Agenor, highlighted by the radical tilting of ice blocks several kilometers across. Towards the end of the animation, several walled depressions appear which cut into the surface of Agenor Linea; these were likely formed when parts of the icy crust dropped downward.

View this video on YouTube.

Additional images and information about Agenor Linea are available from NASA's Planetary Photojournal.

Video provided courtesy of Dr. Paul Schenk.