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2 - The tectonics of Mercury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2010

By
Thomas R. Watters and
Francis Nimmo
Edited by
Thomas R. Watters and
Richard A. Schultz
Thomas R. Watters
Affiliation:
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Francis Nimmo
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
Thomas R. Watters
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Richard A. Schultz
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Reno
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Summary

Summary

Mercury has a remarkable number of landforms that express widespread deformation of the planet's crustal materials. Deformation on Mercury can be broadly described as either distributed or basin-localized. The distributed deformation on Mercury is dominantly compressional. Crustal shortening is reflected by three landforms, lobate scarps, high-relief ridges, and wrinkle ridges. Lobate scarps are the expression of surface-breaking thrust faults and are widely distributed on Mercury. High-relief ridges are closely related to lobate scarps and appear to be formed by high-angle reverse faults. Wrinkle ridges are landforms that reflect folding and thrust faulting and are found largely in smooth plains material within and exterior to the Caloris basin. The Caloris basin has an array of basin-localized tectonic features. Basin-concentric wrinkle ridges in the interior smooth plains material are very similar to those found in lunar mascon basins. The Caloris basin also has the only clear evidence of broad-scale, extensional deformation. Extension of the interior plains materials is expressed as a complex pattern of basin-radial and basin-concentric graben. The graben crosscut the wrinkle ridges in Caloris, suggesting that they are among the youngest tectonic features on Mercury. The tectonic features have been used to constrain the mechanical and thermal structure of Mercury's crust and lithosphere and to test models for the origin of tectonic stresses. Modeling of lobate scarp thrust faults suggests that the likely depth to the brittle–ductile transition (BDT) is 30 to 40 km.

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Planetary Tectonics , pp. 15 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • The tectonics of Mercury
    • By Thomas R. Watters, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Francis Nimmo, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Edited by Thomas R. Watters, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, Richard A. Schultz, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Book: Planetary Tectonics
  • Online publication: 30 March 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511691645.003
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  • The tectonics of Mercury
    • By Thomas R. Watters, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Francis Nimmo, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Edited by Thomas R. Watters, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, Richard A. Schultz, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Book: Planetary Tectonics
  • Online publication: 30 March 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511691645.003
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  • The tectonics of Mercury
    • By Thomas R. Watters, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Francis Nimmo, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Edited by Thomas R. Watters, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, Richard A. Schultz, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Book: Planetary Tectonics
  • Online publication: 30 March 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511691645.003
Available formats
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