Evaluating the Loading History of Pavonis Mons, Mars using Lithospheric Flexure
Abstract
Lithospheric flexure due to loading has been used in the past to study the many volcanic regions of Mars, evaluating different properties of the lithosphere such as thickness, load density, and heat flow. This dynamic process creates both compressive and extensional stresses at the surface of the planet and manifest as respective geologic features. Previous studies have used localized admittance spectra to constrain the lithosphere thickness beneath many Martian volcanoes, although results for Pavonis Mons were inconclusive. Surrounding Pavonis there are a series of collapsed chain pits called Pavonis Fossae, likely created through volatile outgassing from a dike. These dikes should have formed where extensional or the least compressive stresses are seen. Using flexure and the location of these features we constrain the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere underneath Pavonis by comparing where we predict extensional stress with the extensional geologic features seen on the surface.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMP055.0014W
- Keywords:
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- 0406 Astrobiology and extraterrestrial materials;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 6225 Mars;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS;
- 6297 Instruments and techniques;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS;
- 5430 Interiors;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLID SURFACE PLANETS