This is an image of the Uruk Sulcus Region of Ganymede.
Click on image for full size
NASA
Ganymede Tectonism
There has been no icy volcanism on Ganymede, but it does seem that there has been a kind of tectonism, or surface motion.
Examination of the surface of Ganymede reveals many kinds of faulting and fracture. These provide evidence of stress (pushing and shoving) which the crust of Ganymede has undergone through time.
Examination of the surface of Ganymede shows:
- Graben style faulting (another name for continental rifting)
- Imbricate faulting (like a leaning stack of bricks)
Examination of the surface also shows a sequence of deformation, where the younger areas were deformed differently than the older areas.
This style of icy-tectonism proves to be different from either that of Callisto or Europa. (The other major moon of Jupiter, Io has a more conventional form of volcanism.) The difference has to do with processes in the interior of Ganymede
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