Abstract

Mercury’s tectonic history has been dominated by global contraction as the planet shrinks and cools. Previously, fault dips have been indirectly estimated by measuring offsets to the rims of craters displaced by fault movement. Here we present the first observations of a fault surface exposed in three dimensions, in this case within a volcanic vent. We use shadow measurements to determine the depth of the vent and have measured the dip of the fault as 28° ±5. This is towards the shallower end of previous dip estimates used to estimate global contraction. If it is representative, it suggests global contraction at the higher end (5.7–7.1 ​km) of previously published estimates.

Highlights

  • Tectonic and volcanic processes have shaped Mercury’s surface over its geological history (Strom et al, 1975; Head et al, 2008, 2009; Watters et al, 2015)

  • Tectonism is manifest in shortening landforms such as lobate scarps, wrinkle ridges, and high relief ridges, which are the dominant surface expression of the planet’s global contraction (Dzurisin, 1978; Melosh and McKinnon, 1988; Watters et al, 2009)

  • During the process of reviewing volcanic vents on Mercury (Pegg et al, 2020) we identified several vents that occur directly on a tectonic fault (Fig. 1)

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Summary

A Fault Surface Exposed on Mercury

Planetary and Space Science, 201, article no. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2021 D.L. Pegg et al. Https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.pss.2021.105223. Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. Planetary and Space Science 201 (2021) 105223 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect. D.L. Pegg a,*, D.A. Rothery a, S.J. Conway b, M.R. Balme a a The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK b CNRS UMR 6112 Laboratoire de Planetologie et Geodynamique, Universite de Nantes, France

Introduction
A fault’s dip revealed
Geological setting
Measuring the fault dip
Discussion
Conclusions
Declaration of competing interest

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