Stress models for Tharsis formation, Mars

Abstract

A critical survey is presented of most stress models proposed for the formation of the tectonic structures in the Tharsis volcano-tectonic province on Mars and provides new constraints for further models. First papers, in the 1970s, attempted to relate the Tharsis formation to asthenospheric movements and lithosphere loading by magma bodies. These processes were then quantified in terms of stress trajectory and magnitude models in elastic lithosphere (e.g. Banerdt et al., J. Geophys. Res. 87(B12), 9723–9733, 1982). Stresses generated by dynamic lithosphere uplift were rapidly dismissed because of the poor agreement between the stress trajectories provided by the elastic models and the structural observations. The preferred stress models involved lithosphere loading, inducing isostatic compensation, and then lithosphere flexure. Some incomsistency with structural interpretation of Viking imagery has been found. In the early 1990s, an attempt to solve this problem resulted in a model involving the existence of a Tharsis-centred brittle crustal cap, deteched from the strong mantle by a weak crustal layer (Tanaka et al., J. Geophys. Res. 96(E1), 15617–15633, 1991). Such a configuration should produce loading stresses akin to those predicted by some combination of the two loading modes. This model has not been quantified yet, however it is expected to reconcile stress trajectories and most structural patterns. Nevertheless, some inconsistencies with observed structures are also expected to remain. Parallel to this approach focused on loading mechanisms, the idea that volcanism and tectonic structures could be related to mantle circulation began to be considered again through numerical convection experiments, whose results have however not been clearly correlated with surface observations. Structural clues to early Tharsis dynamic uplift are reported. These structures have little to do with those predicted by elastic stress modelling of dynamic lithosphere uplift. They denote the existence of unsteady stress trajectories responsible for surface deformations that cannot be readily predicted by elastic models. These structures illustrate that improving current stress models for Tharsis formation shall come from deeper consideration of rock failure criterion and load growth in the lithosphere (e.g. Schultz and Zuber, J. Geophys. Res. 99(E7), 14691–14702, 1994). Improvements should also arise from better understanding rheological layering in the lithosphere and its evolution with time, and from consideration of stress associated to magma emplacement in the crust, which may have produced many tectonic structures before loading stress resulting from magma freezing became significant (Mège and Masson, Planet. Space Sci. 44, 1499–1546, 1996a).