The Chamaeleon i dark cloud ( Cha i ) has been mapped in \mathrm { C ^ { 18 } O } ~ { } ( J = 1 - 0 )   with an angular resolution of 1 \arcmin using the SEST telescope .
The large scale structures previously observed with lower spatial resolution in the cloud turn into a network of clumpy filaments .
The automatic Clumpfind routine developed by [ Williams et al .
1994 ] is used to identify individual clumps in a consistent way .
Altogether 71 clumps were found and the total mass of these clumps is 230 \mathrm { M } _ { \odot } .
The dense ’ cores ’ detected with the NANTEN telescope ( [ Mizuno et al .
1999 ] ) and the very cold cores detected in the ISOPHOT serendipity survey ( [ Tóth et al .
2000 ] ) form parts of these filaments but decompose into numerous ’ clumps ’ .
The filaments are preferentially oriented at right angles to the large-scale magnetic field in the region .
We discuss the cloud structure , the physical characteristics of the clumps and the distribution of young stars .
The observed clump mass spectrum is compared with the predictions of the turbulent fragmentation model of [ Padoan & Nordlund 2002 ] .
An agreement is found if fragmentation has been driven by very large-scale hypersonic turbulence , and if it has had time to dissipate into modestly supersonic turbulence in the interclump gas by the present time .
According to numerical simulations , large-scale turbulence should have resulted in filamentary structures as seen in Cha i .
The well-oriented magnetic field does not , however , support this picture , but suggest magnetically steered large-scale collapse .
The origin of filaments and clumps in Cha i is thus controversial .
A possible solution is that the characterization of the driving turbulence fails and in fact different processes have been effective on small and large scales in this cloud .