Never before seen wrinkles: On Mercury

William Atkins
Monday, 25 May 2009 18:13

Science - Space

They add in the abstract to their paper, “Stratigraphic relations indicate a multistaged infilling and deformational history involving successive or overlapping phases of contractional and extensional deformation. The youngest deformation of the basin involved the formation of a ~1000-kilometer-long lobate scarp, a product of the global cooling and contraction of Mercury."

The pattern of troughs and ridges is being described as wheel-and-spoke-like as they radiate out from the center of the basin.

The pattern is etched into volcanic materials that much earlier emerged to the surface after an extraterrestrial object (maybe an asteroid or meteoroid) impacted the planet.

The feature called “wrinkle ridges” occurred when the planet’s crust is compressed while the troughs are stretched after the impact of a foreign body onto the planet.

Team member, and one of the authors of the study, Thomas Watters (of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.) stated, “What’s so bizarre is these features are sitting beside each other. We’ve never seen anything like that.” [New Scientist: “Mercury’s ‘wrinkle ridges’ are unique” (May 9-16, 2009, page 14).

Learn more about the MESSENGER mission to Mercury at the iTWire article “MESSENGER spacecraft sees more of Mercury.”