Mercury's global evolution: New views from MESSENGER

MESSENGER's exploration of Mercury has revealed the planet's rich and dynamic history and provided new constraints on the processes that control its internal evolution. Mercury's surface records evidence of an extensive geological history. This evidence includes resurfacing by impacts and volcanism prior to the end of the late heavy bombardment (LHB) and a subsequent rapid waning of effusive volcanism. Volcanism is an important indicator of the history of melt production. Thousands of globally distributed, contractional tectonic landforms collectively have accommodated a decrease in Mercury's radius of 5-7 km since the end of the LHB. Such contraction results from planetary cooling and crystallization within Mercury's metallic core. Measurements of surface chemistry have provided constraints on internal radiogenic heat production necessary to understand more fully Mercury's thermal evolution. Elemental abundances also reveal that Mercury is strongly chemically reduced, suggesting that the core's iron is alloyed with silicon as well as sulfur, which constrains the dynamics and crystallization of the metallic core. Magnetometer observations show that Mercury's dynamo-generated, dominantly dipolar field is displaced ~500 km northward along the rotation axis. Low-altitude magnetic field observations late in the mission led to the discovery of crustal magnetization in Mercury's ancient crust, dating to at least 3.7 Ga, which places a new constraint on the timing of the dynamo. Monte Carlo parameterized mantle convection models, constrained by these observations, indicate that for global contraction of 7 km or less, mantle convection persists to the present ~40% of the time, with the likelihood of modern convection decreasing with less global contraction. Slow present cooling in these models indicates that dynamo generation is strongly influenced by both a static layer at the top of the core and convective motions within the core driven by compositional buoyancy.