Compositional variability across Mercury's surface revealed by MESSENGER measurements of variations in thermal neutron count rates

Measurements by MESSENGER's Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) have revealed variations in the flux of thermal neutrons across Mercury's northern hemisphere. These variations are interpreted to originate from spatial variations in surface elemental composition. In particular, the measurements are sensitive to the near-surface abundances of elements that absorb thermal neutrons, including major rock-forming elements such as Fe and Ti, minor elements such as Mn and Cl, and rare-earth elements such as Gd and Sm. We have constructed a map of thermal neutron variability across the surface and compared it with known variations in elemental composition and with the distribution of geologic units. Development of the map included the derivation of the macroscopic thermal neutron absorption cross section across the surface, a quantity whose value and variability provides useful constraints on the formation and geochemical evolution of Mercury's crust. Finally, by combining the thermal neutron measurements with previously reported elemental measurements from the GRNS and MESSENGER's X-Ray Spectrometer, we have derived constraints on the abundances of neutron-absorbing elements, including previously unreported limits for some minor and rare-earth elements.