![Severely fractured area in the equatorial zone of Europa’s ice crust, imaged by the Galileo …[Credits : NASA/JPL]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/82/75382-004-ACB16578.jpg)
Severely fractured area in the equatorial zone of Europa’s ice crust, imaged by the Galileo spacecraft on June 27, 1996. The ice has been disrupted into blocks, some as large as 30 km (20 miles) across, which then moved and refroze. The darker fill material originally may have been a watery rock-contaminated slush that oozed up between the plates.
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