Variability in Early Amazonian Tharsis stress state based on wrinkle ridges and strike-slip faulting

Abstract

We present evidence for a decrease in the magnitude of Tharsis-circumferential compressive stress during the Late Hesperian to the Middle Amazonian based on chronologic changes in the predominant style of faulting in southern Amazonis Planitia. Using high-resolution MOLA topography, we identify a population of strike-slip faults that exhibit Middle Amazonian-aged displacements of regional chrono-stratigraphic units. These strike-slip faults are adjacent to an older population of previously documented Late Hesperian-aged thrust faults (wrinkle ridges). Along-strike orientations of these thrust and strike-slip faults reveal the Tharsis-radial stress to be the area's most compressive remote principal stress and that this stress orientation and magnitude persisted throughout the Late Hesperian to the Middle Amazonian. We show that the change in the predominant style of faulting from thrust faulting to strike-slip faulting during this time requires a decrease of the Tharsis-circumferential compressive stress to a magnitude less than lithostatic load, with negligible change in stress orientation.