Titania’s Messina Chasmata

Titania is the fourth major moon from Uranus and is the largest moon in the Uranian system. It has a diameter of ~1580 km, a density of ~1.7 g/cm3, and was imaged by Voyager 2 at a resolution of 2.9 km/pixel. Even with the low-resolution images, it is apparent that Titania has undergone significant tectonic deformation (Smith et al., 1986) and potentially recent heating events (e.g., Moore et al., 2004). Although there is a significant number craters on Titania, its surfaces exhibit evidence for resurfacing in the chasmata, large (>5 km wide, >1 km deep) canyons that extend for 10s of kilometers, located near the equator. In this work, we will reprocess the Voyager 2 images of Titania and perform new geologic mapping of Titania’s Messina Chasmata region. Using these images and a digital elevation model, we will investigate flexure reflected by Messina to estimate Titania’s heat fluxes in this region.