New Observations of Recently Active Wrinkle Ridges in the Lunar Mare: Implications for the Timing and Origin of Lunar Tectonics

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AbstractThe variety of tectonic features on the Moon indicates that the lunar lithosphere has undergone a complex deformational history. Lobate scarps and wrinkle ridges are two such tectonic features that have resulted from compressional stresses. The crisp morphologies and cross cutting relations associated with a global population of lobate scarps have been cited as evidence for their recent (<1.0 Ga) formation, but observations of recently active wrinkle ridges have not been made on a similar scale. Here, we present new observations of 1,116 recently active (∼0.056–1.5 Ga) wrinkle ridge segments on the lunar maria. Our results indicate that clusters of recently active wrinkle ridges are distributed across ∼90% of nearside mare basins. Spatial correlations were noted between wrinkle ridge orientations with predicted stress fields from both orbital recession and global contraction as well as ongoing reactivation of a residual set of structures associated with the South Pole–Aitken basin.