I've been reading the Mars trilogy (by Kim Stanley Robinson) after it was recommended on an HN thread a while back, and it's been on my mind to look into what the "chaos" was. Pretty neat
"Badlands of Aram Chaos" itself sounds like a sci fi title. Also, the picture of it in the "Gallery" section is cool and visually confusing. I'm struggling not to see a smooth, reflecting water surface in it, that can't possibly be there.
Edit: I think it's an aerial picture, but my brain insists on seeing it as one taken from the surface.
I'm surprised that we do not have any chaos terrain on Earth. Can't find any explanation why. We have had large sudden flood events on Earth, but maybe weathering orders the 'chaos' over time?
We almost certainly did at one point, but life and tides can fill-in the gaps. We also truly do not know what terrain is underneath Antarctica, Greenland, etc.
The suggested mechanism is that sedimentary rocks form over ice. That puzzles me in itself, because it implies a river with ice at the bottom. But anyway, then some heat source arrives and melts the ice, causing a sort of rug pull that means the rock layer drops down and breaks up. Kaboom.
Edit: I think it's an aerial picture, but my brain insists on seeing it as one taken from the surface.