The Evolution of Mercury's Crust
Abstract
Understanding the origin and evolution of Mercury's crust was a key goal of the MESSENGER mission. Prior to MESSENGER's exploration of Mercury, a leading hypothesis for the formation of the planet's crust was through crystal-liquid fractionation of a magma ocean, leading to a plagioclase flotation crust analogous to that of the Moon. However, reflectance observations and elemental abundance data make it clear that Mercury's crust is very different from the Moon's, and interpretations based on the planet's geomorphology and crater size-frequency distributions imply widespread resurfacing occurred, likely through a combination of volcanism and impact cratering. This geologic activity complicates an examination of Mercury's early crust. Here we present an investigation of Mercury's stratigraphy in order to evaluate the mode(s) of formation of key crustal units. We explore whether the global occurrences and regional variations are consistent with a graphite flotation crust, and investigate the role of early volcanism in the formation of Mercury's crust.
- Publication:
-
Mercury 2022
- Pub Date:
- June 2022
- Bibcode:
- 2022merc.conf..113D
- Keywords:
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- Deep interior;
- geophysics;
- planetary;
- evolution;
- Mercury