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1.
The concept of block tectonics provides a framework for understanding many aspects of Tharsis and adjoining structures. This Tharsis block tectonics on Mars is manifested partly by mantle-related doming and partly by response to loading by subsequent volcanic construction. Although the origin of the volcanism from beneath Tharsis is a subject of controversy explanations have to include inhomogenities in Martian internal structure, energy distribution, magma accumulation and motion below the lithosphere. Thermal convection can be seen as a necessary consequence for transient initial phase of Martian cooling. This produced part of the elevated topography with tensional stresses and graben systems radial to the main bulge. The linear grabens, radial to the Tharsis center, can be interpreted to indicate rift zones that define the crustal block boundaries. The load-induced stresses may then have contributed on further graben and ridge formation over an extended period of time.On leave from Dept. of Astronomy University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.  相似文献   

2.
Topographic information, surface structures and construction of the Martian Tharsis bulge are used to estimate the previous stresses across the low-lying peripheral margins of the crustal blocks in terms of simple compensation models. Hot mantle activity, crustal roots, isostasy, and late-stage extensive lithosphere thickening together with volcanic building have been in combined response to the high-elevated Tharsis bulge. The initial phases of the Tharsis building have been dominated by the mantle plume doming, followed by extrusional dome raising. The volcanism has been most important bulge building factor only after thickening of the crust. During the initial mantle-generated doming and igneous activity the thin-lithosphere block tectonics has been very important. There has been a compressional peripheral zone around the bulge giving rise to dorsa formation while the high bulge crests have been in tensional state. The situation may be favorable for comparative studies with other planets. We may have something to learn from this block tectonics on the one-plate planet Mars even in respect to the Earth's plate tectonic paradigm.On leave from Dept. of Astronomy, University of Oulu, Finland.  相似文献   

3.
It is evident that lunar mare basins have been subsiding and one reason for such subsidence was the existence of their mascons and their volcanic fills as loads that flexed the lithosphere. The additional effects of drying up and cooling of internal hot volumes may also have been important, leading to still more compressional mare environment. The remaining relicic thermal pulse-induced dilatation within large areas surrounding the mare basins may be responsible for the extensional rille tectonics together with the flexural peripheral bulge due to tensional arching and bending due to differences in internal volume changes. The internal attack against the lunar crust has been quite different above and below the mean surface. Below this level the old crust was more easily attacked by volcanic extrusions, causing thick lava covers and, as a consequence, broken by compressional forces; while above this level the old crust has instead been temporarily and in places attacked by tensional forces in dimensions determined by the internal energy sources and their interaction with the lithospheric roof, thus enabling the internal forces together with flexural bending to dome and fault the upper crustal surface to some extent in respect to mare areas. The rille formation can be characterized by peripheral bulging and bending. The share of asthenosphere-related effects in lunar tectonics must be considered to have been very important. If only lava load and mascons have raised compression within mare areas and tension within the surrounding terra how can be explained those rille graben which do not have any extra mass concentrations nor lavas on their sides and why some major mascon basins have so few tensional rille graben structures around them?  相似文献   

4.
Morphological and structural data from the whole Tharsis province suggest that a number of shallow grabens radially oriented about the Tharsis bulge on Mars are underlain by dykes, which define giant radiating swarms similar to, e.g. the Mackenzie dyke swarm of the Canadian shield. Mechanisms for graben formation are proposed, and the depth, width, and height of the associated dykes are estimated. Structural mapping leads to define successive stages of dyke emplacement, and provide stress-trajectory maps that indicate a steady source of the regional stress during the whole history of the Tharsis province. A new tectonic model of Tharsis is presented, based on an analogy with dyke swarms on the Earth that form inside hot spots. This model successfully matches the following features: (1) the geometry of the South Tharsis Ridge Belt, which may have been a consequence of the compressional stress field at the boundary between the uplifted and non-uplifted areas in the upper part of the lithosphere at the onset of hot spot activity; (2) extensive lava flooding, interpreted as a consequence of the high thermal anomaly at the onset of plume (hot spot) activity; (3) wrinkle ridge geometry in the Tharsis hemisphere, the formation of which is interpreted as a consequence of buoyant subsidence of the brittle crust in response to the lava load; (4) Valles Marineris limited stretching by preliminary passive rifting, and uplift, viewed as a necessary consequence of adiabatic mantle decompression induced by stretching. The geometrical analysis of dyke swarms suggests the existence of a large, Tharsis-independent extensional state of stress during all the period of tectonic activity, in which the minimum compressive stress is roughly N---S oriented. Although magmatism must have loaded the lithosphere significantly after the plume activity ceased and be responsible for additional surface deformations, there is no requirement for further loading stress to explain surficial features. Comparison with succession of magmatic and tectonic events related to hot spots on the Earth suggests that the total time required to produce all the surface deformation observed in the Tharsis province over the last 3.8 Ga does probably not exceed 10 or 15 Ma.  相似文献   

5.
Mare ridges were caused by compressional tectonics and indicate the shortening of the planum surface foiled by lavas. At least two separate tectonic phases within Syrtis Major Planum can be found. The two central calderas are located on the southwestern continuation of the Nili Fossae graben zone at the junction of the N-S and NW-SE mare ridge sets. These central calderas were formed by surface collapses into relatively shallow magma chambers. Radial and concentric mare ridges around the two calderas represent a shortened surface environment within the large compressional megacaldera. Shortening was caused by sinking of the crust due to the lava load, plumbing of the magma chambers and cooling of the interiors. The main NW-SE ridge trend parallels highland faults of the major structural zone extending from Hesperia Planum to Vastitas Borealis. These NW-SE ridges indicate the large scale areal tectonic trend along the Scopulus Oenotria - Phison Rupes fault zone and support the idea of a main SW-NE compression. The N-S directed mare ridges of the northern planum area favour a change in compressional stress direction from SW-NE in the south to E-W in the northern planum, obviously due to the buried local topography. These linear mare ridges can also be interpreted as forming a large Isidis Planitia-concentric ridge circle connecting Nili Fossae to Libya Montes. Formation of the mare ridges was the youngest of the main tectonic phases involved within the area studied.  相似文献   

6.
The tectonics of the Grimaldi area are described and analyzed in detail from high-resolution Lunar Orbiter photographs.Rille grabens are long and narrow fault zone structures of lunar terra. The polygonal rille graben pattern indicates the importance of lunar internal activity with an adjoining thin lithosphere in the areal tectonics at the time of rille grabening. The graben subsidence developed during tensional bending of this thin terra lithosphere. The en échelon graben offsets indicate the existence of strikeslip movements along the main fault under tensional lithosphere conditions.In some places mare ridge ranges continue in the direction of the rille graben indicating the connection of these structures to each other as part of the lunar tectonic evolution. The very thin mare lithosphere was affected more easily and over a longer period of time by lunar internal forces. The effect of older structural units is thus less conspicuous within mare areas. Proposed Riedel-shear-like structures indicate a slight shortening and compression of the mare basin lithosphere during movements along lava-covered zones of weakness.  相似文献   

7.
The Alba Patera main graben zone is radial to the Tharsis bulge, indicating the importance of the Tharsis bulge-related peripheral rift tectonics. The concentric grabens around the Alba Patera area are also partly caused by crustal bending due to the central load of the Alba Patera volcano. These two graben sets partly coincide forming composite structures. Both tectonic systems were still active after the last major volcanic lava extrusions took place. After this, the crater chain grabens, radial to the northernmost part of the Tharsis bulge were formed. These collapse craters were evidently caused by the late-tectonic forces due to the northern Tharsis and adjoining lava loads, resulting in flexural tension and activating previous faults.  相似文献   

8.
The main major ridge belts of Ganiki Planitia on Venus (Lama, Ahsonnutli and Pandrosos Dorsa) are part of the fan-shaped ridge belt complex along the 200 parallel of longitude. These ridge belts with evidence of crustal shortening support the idea of a large-scale E-W compression. The ridge belt patterns indicate a N-S shear component. These forces are explained by a triangular planitia area which compressed by surrounding terrains. The crustal shortening and ridge belt formation indicates compressional plate movement stresses in the uppermost lithosphere.Three sizes of ridge belt structure are to be found within Ganiki Planitia. (1) The ridge belt spacing of 200–400 km can be used to estimate the depth of the major uppermost homogeneous layer of Venus. There are numerous volcanic coronae, paterae and montes located along the main ridge belts or at their junctions. (2) Mid-size ridge groups or subbelts are to be found within the major ridge belts. These are formed by more local responses to tectonic stresses in the stratified uppermost crust. A wavelength of 40–70 km can be seen as a result of bending of the crustal strata and may relate to its thickness. (3) Small individual ridges are connected with most local stresses, defining places where the surface layers broke along the crests of large ridge belts or mid-scale subbelts. Radial and concentric mare ridge-like structures around coronae indicate that corona formation was effective at a sufficiently close vicinity to fault the surface.  相似文献   

9.
Observations of ridge-fault crosscutting relationships on the ridged plains units surrounding the Tharsis region of Mars have led to the development of a classification scheme involving three distinct types of intersections. Ridges crosscut by faults are designated Type C and account for 81% of the observed intersections. Ridges terminated at one end by a fault (Type T), as well as those superposed on grabens (Type S), are less numerous. Interpretation of the morphology of these intersections and the angles of intersection between ridges and faults with radial trends to major topographic features in the Tharsis region have led to the following conclusions: (1) the major ridge forming events in the Tharsis region were roughly coincident with, and in some cases possibly prior to, the extensional events that produced the faulting of the Tempe and Mareotis regions, the Coprates and Memnonia regions, and the rifting of Valles Marinrris; (2) the compressional events that formed most of the ridges are restricted in time both by the irrelationship to regional extensional events and by the age of the units on which they formed. The suggestion that compressional ridges are a result of a single long term viscoelastic response of the lithosphere to loading of the crust is not supported by this study. A model involving one or more isostatically compensated uplifts and subsequent relaxation of the crust after the emplacement of the ridged plains volcanic units is favored.  相似文献   

10.
Some en echelon structures, tension gashes and compressional ridges may form similar patterns. The N-S compression activates diagonal conjugate zones of weakness with tension gashes in the vicinity of the compressional direction. In the case of E-W compression similar arrangements of en echelon compression ridges are generated.The global N-S compression existing at the time of fracturing of the lava-flooded Oceanus Procellarum basin is arguable. It is possible to interpret some different scale mare ridge arrangements as en echelon within en echelon structures. Major ridge ranges evidently have Riedel and opposite Riedel orientations and they consist of minor en echelon structures which may in places be intruded tension gashes but are evidently mostly sheared and compressed Riedel fractures.The en echelon withinen echelon structures of mare ridges manifest the significance of different scale strike-slip movements along the lithosphere zones of weakness indicated by present mare ridge zones. The orientation of these Riedel-fracture-like en echelon structures also points to the existence of an areal compression during shearings along the zones of weakness. The Oceanus Procellarum basin sinking caused by lava loadings and lunar internal cooling led to the lithosphere shortening and to compressional circumstances. The angle between proposed Riedel structures and the mare ridge zones varies within this area, possibly indicating differences in compression and shearing in distinct parts of the shortened basin lithosphere.  相似文献   

11.
Lunar crustal shortening does not seem to be restricted to the lava-filled basins alone; but there are some young scarp-like terra ridges in places around mare areas where they often continue other tectonic structures. This crustal shortening has not reached the same intensity as in the case of the lobate scarp overthrusts on Mercury. Young lunar terra ridges indicate that crustal shortening with an areal extent also took place slightly around mare basins. Thus they link tensional rille tectonics with compressional mare ridge tectonics and indicate that areal heating/bending/extension — cooling/ shortening/compression may describe an important explaining factor in lunar mare- and near-mare tectonics in addition to the volcanic extrusions.  相似文献   

12.
A structural analysis is presented of the mare ridge pattern in an area of about 1 000 000 km2 in the central parts of Oceanus Procellarum.The penetration of magmas through the crust at the Marius Hills and Aristarchus Plateau/Harbinger Mountains volcanic complexes may have happened along pre-existing deep zone of weakness. Associated with these zones are present mare ridge ranges, some of which can be regarded as having formed radial or subradial ridge swarms to the complexes as they were strengthened by stress field changes caused by upward doming and penetrating magmas.The present moonquake epicentres within this area seem to be connected with mare ridge ranges. Focal depths from about 800 to 1000 km indicate a decreasing trend of tectonic activity. One shallow moonquake epicentre also lies within the mare ridge sets.  相似文献   

13.
Mare ridges of the Hesperia Planum area form linear, reticular and circular structures. The main factors effective in mare ridge formation have been (i) a large areal, or maybe even global, shortening and compression, (ii) major crustal tectonics, and (iii) the moderation of tectonic movements by the megaregolith discontinuity layer(s) between surface lavas and the bedrock leaving the compressional thrust to dominate over other fault movements in surface tectonics.  相似文献   

14.
H.J. Melosh 《Icarus》1980,44(3):745-751
Both geologic and free-air-gravity data suggest that the positive mass anomaly associated with the Tharsis volcanoes may have reoriented Mars' lithosphere by as much as 25°. Since Mars is oblate (with flattening ? ?0.005), rotation of the lithosphere over the equatorial bulge by 25° produces membrane stresses of several kilobars, large enough to initiate faulting. These stresses were first evaluated by F.A. Vening-Meinesz (1947, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union28, 1–61) who treated the lithosphere as a thin elastic shell. The fracture patterns which result from these stresses are determined by the relation between stress and faulting proposed by E.M. Anderson (1951, The Dynamics of Faulting, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh). Plots of the magnitude and direction of stresses in a reoriented planet show that near Tharsis the dominant fault type should be north-south- trending normal faults. This normal fault province is centered about 30°N latitude and extends about 45° east and west in longitude. Similar faults should occur at the antipodes, north of Hellas Planitia. The polar regions should be occupied by roughly north-south-trending thrust faults which extend close to the equator south of Tharsis and north of Hellas. The regions between Tharsis and Hellas are subject to compression on a NE-trending axis and extension along a NW axis east of Tharsis (west of Tharsis the directions are NW compression and NE extension), thus predicting a zone of NNW and ENE strike slip faults east of Tharsis (NNE and WNW west of Tharsis). Although these patterns, except for the north-south normal faults north of Tharsis, have not yet been recognized, the discovery of such a tectonic system of the same age as Tharsis would provide strong support for the reorientation idea. Stresses due to reorientation appear to have little to do with Valles Marineris, since the stress normal to the axis of the Valles is predicted to be compressive, whereas geologic evidence suggests extension.  相似文献   

15.
The Tharsis rise on Mars with a diameter of about 8000 km and an elevation up to 10 km shows extensive volcanism and an extensional fracture system. Other authors explained this structure by (I) an uplift due to mantle processes and by (II) volcanic construction. Gravity models of four profiles are in accordance with a total Airy isostatic compensation of the whole rise with mean crustal thicknesses of 50 km and 100 km. But two regions exhibit significant mass deficits: (i) the area between Olympus Mons and the three large Tharsis volcanoes and (ii) central Tharsis. This can be explained by (1) a heated upper mantle, (2) a chemically modified upper mantle, (3) a crustal thickening, or (4) a combination of these three processes. Crustal thickening is mainly a constructional process, but the mass deficit should contribute to a certain degree of uplift causing the extensional area of Labyrinthus Noctis. Gravity modelling results in a different isostatic state of the three Tharsis volcanoes. Pavonis Mons is not compensated, Ascraeus Mons is highly or totally compensated, and Arsia Mons is medium or not compensated. The large, flat volcanic structure Alba Patera has been explained by a hot spot with an evolution of a mantle diapir.The results have shown that the Tharsis rise is a very complex structure. The central and eastern part of the rise is characterized by extensional features and a mass deficit (Extensional Province). The western part is dominated by many volcanic features and a central elongated mass deficit (Volcanic Province). The northern part consists of Alba Patera. It seems unlikely that the whole rise has been generated by one stationary large axisymmetric plume or hot spot. There could have been one or more active hot spots with an evolution in space and time.Contribution Nr. 421, Institut für Geophysik der Universität Kiel, Germany.  相似文献   

16.
Centers of tectonic activity in the eastern hemisphere of Mars   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
We compiled a paleotectonic map for the eastern hemisphere of Mars to determine if extensional tectonic features (graben) are radial or compressional tectonic features (wrinkle ridges) are concentric to centers of tectonic activity defined by axisymmetric stress fields. Using a vector analysis technique all latitude and longitude points (1° bins) are tested to see if they lie on great circle extensions of extensional structures (the plane defined by the maximum and intermediate principal stresses) or great circle perpendiculars to compressional structures (the plane defined by the maximum and minimum compressional stresses). Centers of tectonic activity are defined as 5° areas whose concentrations of great circle extensions of tectonic features are statistically significant (e.g., 3σ or 7.4σ for large populations) and therefore are not the result of random noise. Our paleotectonic investigation has identified four statistically significant centers of tectonic activity within the eastern hemisphere: Elysium, Hadriaca/Tyrrhena-Hellas, Isidis-Syrtis, and Arabia Terra. Two of these centers (Hadriaca/Tyrrhena and Isidis-Syrtis) meet the 7.4σ statistical criteria and thus represent primary centers of tectonic activity with axisymmetric stress fields. The remaining two meet the 3σ statistical criteria and thus are defined as secondary centers of tectonic activity. Because the structures that define the centers extend over 80° of the planet the defined centers of tectonic activity are regional in character and related to modified impact basins or volcanic centers (all are more limited in extent than the Tharsis stress system that extends over the entire western hemisphere). The observation that statistically significant centers of tectonic activity are quantifiably and statistically identified argues that the crust and lithosphere of the eastern hemisphere at a regional scale is not dominated by regional inhomogeneities and anisotropies.  相似文献   

17.
The lengthy Meshkenet Tessera highland located between Ishtar Terra and coronae of the Nightingale group provides evidence of large-scale crustal movements. Its complex tectonic structures have various deformation geometries, thus indicating different tectonic sequences. The main parallel faults, first explained as rotational bookshelf faults, are more likely due to relative dextral direct shear movements of rectangular blocks. These faults have been active, possibly due to endogenic stresses, as indicated by mid-size ridge ranges which connect them to some of the large coronae. There are some compressional ridge belts around Meshkenet Tessera, while deformation within the tessera blocks has mostly been extensional.  相似文献   

18.
Stress models for Tharsis formation, Mars   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
A critical survey is presented of most stress models proposed for the formation of the tectonic structures in the Tharsis volcano-tectonic province on Mars and provides new constraints for further models. First papers, in the 1970s, attempted to relate the Tharsis formation to asthenospheric movements and lithosphere loading by magma bodies. These processes were then quantified in terms of stress trajectory and magnitude models in elastic lithosphere (e.g. Banerdt et al., J. Geophys. Res. 87(B12), 9723–9733, 1982). Stresses generated by dynamic lithosphere uplift were rapidly dismissed because of the poor agreement between the stress trajectories provided by the elastic models and the structural observations. The preferred stress models involved lithosphere loading, inducing isostatic compensation, and then lithosphere flexure. Some incomsistency with structural interpretation of Viking imagery has been found. In the early 1990s, an attempt to solve this problem resulted in a model involving the existence of a Tharsis-centred brittle crustal cap, deteched from the strong mantle by a weak crustal layer (Tanaka et al., J. Geophys. Res. 96(E1), 15617–15633, 1991). Such a configuration should produce loading stresses akin to those predicted by some combination of the two loading modes. This model has not been quantified yet, however it is expected to reconcile stress trajectories and most structural patterns. Nevertheless, some inconsistencies with observed structures are also expected to remain. Parallel to this approach focused on loading mechanisms, the idea that volcanism and tectonic structures could be related to mantle circulation began to be considered again through numerical convection experiments, whose results have however not been clearly correlated with surface observations. Structural clues to early Tharsis dynamic uplift are reported. These structures have little to do with those predicted by elastic stress modelling of dynamic lithosphere uplift. They denote the existence of unsteady stress trajectories responsible for surface deformations that cannot be readily predicted by elastic models. These structures illustrate that improving current stress models for Tharsis formation shall come from deeper consideration of rock failure criterion and load growth in the lithosphere (e.g. Schultz and Zuber, J. Geophys. Res. 99(E7), 14691–14702, 1994). Improvements should also arise from better understanding rheological layering in the lithosphere and its evolution with time, and from consideration of stress associated to magma emplacement in the crust, which may have produced many tectonic structures before loading stress resulting from magma freezing became significant (Mège and Masson, Planet. Space Sci. 44, 1499–1546, 1996a).  相似文献   

19.
Abstract— The age, structure, composition, and petrogenesis of the martian lithosphere have been constrained by spacecraft imagery and remote sensing. How well do martian meteorites conform to expectations derived from this geologic context? Both data sets indicate a thick, extensive igneous crust formed very early in the planet's history. The composition of the ancient crust is predominantly basaltic, possibly andesitic in part, with sediments derived from volcanic rocks. Later plume eruptions produced igneous centers like Tharsis, the composition of which cannot be determined because of spectral obscuration by dust. Martian meteorites (except Allan Hills 84001) are inferred to have come from volcanic flows in Tharsis or Elysium, and thus are not petrologically representative of most of the martian surface. Remote‐sensing measurements cannot verify the fractional crystallization and assimilation that have been documented in meteorites, but subsurface magmatic processes are consistent with orbital imagery indicating thick crust and large, complex magma chambers beneath Tharsis volcanoes. Meteorite ejection ages are difficult to reconcile with plausible impact histories for Mars, and oversampling of young terrains suggests either that only coherent igneous rocks can survive the ejection process or that older surfaces cannot transmit the required shock waves. The mean density and moment of inertia calculated from spacecraft data are roughly consistent with the proportions and compositions of mantle and core estimated from martian meteorites. Thermal models predicting the absence of crustal recycling, and the chronology of the planetary magnetic field agree with conclusions from radiogenic isotopes and paleomagnetism in martian meteorites. However, lack of vigorous mantle convection, as inferred from meteorite geochemistry, seems inconsistent with their derivation from the Tharsis or Elysium plumes. Geological and meteoritic data provide conflicting information on the planet's volatile inventory and degassing history, but are apparently being reconciled in favor of a periodically wet Mars. Spacecraft measurements suggesting that rocks have been chemically weathered and have interacted with recycled saline groundwater are confirmed by weathering products and stable isotope fractionations in martian meteorites.  相似文献   

20.
Gerald G. Schaber 《Icarus》1980,42(2):159-184
High-resolution Viking Orbiter images (10 to 15 m/pixel) contain significant information on Martian surface roughness at 25- to 100-m lateral scales, whereas Earth-based radar observations of Mars are sensitive to roughness at lateral scales of 1 to 30 m, or more. High-rms slopes predicted for the Tharsis-Memnonia-Amazonis volcanic plains from extremely weak radar returns (low peak radar cross section) are qualitatively confirmed by the Viking image data. Large-scale, curvilinear (but parallel) ridges on lava flows in the Memnonia Fossae region are interpreted as innate flow morphology caused by compressional foldover of moving lava sheets of possible rhyolite-dacite composition. The presence or absence of a recent mantle of fine-grained eolian material on the volcanic surfaces studied was determined by the visibility of fresh impact craters with diameters less than 50 m. Lava flows south and west of Arsia Mons, and within the large region of low thermal inertia centered on Tharsis Montes (H. H. Kieffer et al., 1977, J. Geophys. Res.82, 4249–4291), were found to possess such a recent mantle. At predawn residual temperatures ≥ ?10K (south boundary of this low-temperature region), lava flows are shown to have relatively old eolian mantles. Lava flows with surfaces modified by eolian erosion and deposition occur west-northwest of Apollinaris Patera at the border of the cratered equatorial uplands and southern Elysium Planitia. Nearby yardangs, for which radar observations indicate very high-rms slopes, are similar to terrestrial features of similar origin.  相似文献   

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