Geology of the Caloris Basin, Mercury: A View from MESSENGER
- 4 July 2008
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 321 (5885), 73-76
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1159261
Abstract
The Caloris basin, the youngest known large impact basin on Mercury, is revealed in MESSENGER images to be modified by volcanism and deformation in a manner distinct from that of lunar impact basins. The morphology and spatial distribution of basin materials themselves closely match lunar counterparts. Evidence for a volcanic origin of the basin's interior plains includes embayed craters on the basin floor and diffuse deposits surrounding rimless depressions interpreted to be of pyroclastic origin. Unlike lunar maria, the volcanic plains in Caloris are higher in albedo than surrounding basin materials and lack spectral evidence for ferrous iron-bearing silicates. Tectonic landforms, contractional wrinkle ridges and extensional troughs, have distributions and age relations different from their counterparts in and around lunar basins, indicating a different stress history.This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Return to Mercury: A Global Perspective on MESSENGER's First Mercury FlybyScience, 2008
- Mercury Cratering Record Viewed from MESSENGER's First FlybyScience, 2008
- Volcanism on Mercury: Evidence from the First MESSENGER FlybyScience, 2008
- Mercury: Radar images of the equatorial and midlatitude zonesIcarus, 2007
- Extensional troughs in the Caloris Basin of Mercury: Evidence of lateral crustal flowGeology, 2005
- Elastic dislocation modeling of wrinkle ridges on MarsIcarus, 2004
- Lunar Mascon Basins: Lava filling, tectonics, and evolution of the lithosphereReviews of Geophysics, 1980
- Orientale and CalorisPhysics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 1977
- Mercurian volcanism questionedIcarus, 1976
- Additional evidence of Mercurian volcanismIcarus, 1976