Serenity Chasma is the unofficial name given to a large pull-apart fault on Pluto's moon,

Charon In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon ( ; ) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and ...

. It is part of a series of faults that run along the perimeter of Vulcan Planitia. It was discovered by the ''

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

'' mission, and informally named after the fictitious spaceship, '' Serenity''.

Geology

Serenity Chasma is over long, about deep, and its typical width is . The northern wall continues for an additional as a scarp after exiting the chasma. The chasma is part of a major tectonic belt, which involves a series of canyons, scarps, and troughs that traverse most of Charon's encounter hemisphere. The entire tectonic system, which also includes Mandjet Chasma, is one of the longest-known canyon systems in the Solar System. The morphology of Serenity Chasma resembles that of

rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges produced by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear ...

s, indicative of extensional tectonics. Serenity Chasma likely formed as Charon's subsurface ocean froze, leading to the expansion of Charon's interior and the creation of extensional tectonics. The episode of extension may have occurred between 1.7 and 2.5 billion years ago. This expansion pushed the Oz Terra region higher and produced the fault belt across Charon's equatorial region. Five major

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

sites have been identified within Serenity Chasma, all bound by the largest cliffs of the chasm. In addition to the five most prominent landslides, numerous minor landslides too small for detailed observation have also been observed, primarily within impact craters and a small ridge inside Serenity Chasma. Of the five major landslides, all appear to be long-runout landslides, with the ratios between the landslide runout length (L) and drop height (H) between 3.2 and 6.8; terrestrial landslide typically have L/H ratios of ~2. The runout length of the five landslides varies between 15.7 and 24.6 km, with depositional thickness at the landslide toes in the hundreds of meters. The landslides provide insight into the properties of Charon's surface material; the

frictional coefficient Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. Types of friction include dry, fluid, lubricated, skin, and internal -- an incomplete list. The study of t ...

of the landslide material is rather low, ranging from 0.15 to 0.31, comparable to terrestrial debris flows, rock avelanches, and pyroclastic flows.

References

{{Charon (moon) Discoveries by New Horizons Surface features of Charon

Geology

See also

References