Crustal and Lithospheric Structure at Isidis Planitia, Mars

Isidis Planitia is the site of a large free air gravity anomaly consistent with modification and sedimentary or magmatic filling of an impact basin. Mars Global Surveyor gravity and topography data of the Isidis basin on Mars are analyzed to elucidate the crustal and lithospheric structure near the dichotomy boundary in the Eastern hemisphere. Global gravity and topography datasets are inverted using an extension of Banerdt's [1986] model for deformation of a thin elastic shell and a nominal assumption that Isidis was isostatically compensated prior to modification by infilling. Using this model we attempt to constrain potential variations in (and trade-offs among) local crustal thickness, density and thickness of basin fill material, and lithospheric deformation. The permissible parameter space is limited by assuming that the local crustal thickness of the basin cannot be less than zero at the time of infilling. Our results suggest that the density of the fill inside Isidis must be more than 2500 kg/m3 and higher densities are probable. Recent work of Wieczorek and Zuber [2004] indicates that the most likely average crustal thickness of Mars is between 38 and 62 km. On the basis of this range of values for crustal thickness, we infer that the average density of the fill is more than 2900 kg/m3. A high fill density suggests that the material inside the basin is predominantly of igneous rather than sedimentary origin. Under the assumption of an average crustal density of 2900 kg/m3 the inferred thickness of the fill layer is at least 5 km, and could be significantly larger depending upon the degree of compensation of the basin before it was loaded by fill material. A comparison of the faulting observed at Nili Fossae to the predicted zone of extensional strain northwest of Isidis may further constrain the thickness of the elastic lithosphere beneath the basin at the time of loading.