Ganymede vs. Europa: Comparisons of Sulci at the Regional Scale

A portion of Europa's 'wedges' province, near the satellite's anti-Jovian point, was imaged by the Galileo SSI instrument on orbit C3. Dark wedges in the region show broad morphological similarities to grooved terrain on Ganymede as that terrain appears at Voyager resolution. The C3 Europa resolution of about 420 m/pxl is close to that of the best Voyager Ganymede images, about 550 m/pxl. Here we explore the morphological comparison of lanes of grooved terrain ('sulci') on Ganymede to Europan wedges imaged by Galileo. The morphologies show overall similarities, but important differences imply that processes which shaped ridge and trough terrain on these two satellites were likely very different, probably reflecting differences in thermal properties of the satellites' icy lithospheres.