Isotropic Contraction Of Mercury Due To Despinning

Details Isotropic Contraction Of Mercury Due To Despinning Isotropic Contraction Of Mercury Due To Despinning

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.6705m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #67.05

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Mercury's slow rotation period of 59 days is presumably the result of solar tides driving its initial rotational state to the present 3:2 spin-orbit resonance. The observed large gravity coefficients can be explained as due to a remnant rotational bulge recording an initial rotation period of a few days (Matsuyama and Nimmo 2009). Despinning changes the shape of the rotational bulge, generating both compressional and extensional stresses (Melosh 1977). However, Mercury's surface is dominated by compressional tectonic features (Watters et al. 1998), and the inferred global contraction has been explained as due to thermal cooling (Solomon 1976). In addition to non-isotropic changes associated with the rotational flattening, despinning causes isotropic contraction of the entire planet. We consider the effect of the compressional stresses generated by this isotropic contraction on the predicted tectonic pattern.
References
Matsuyama and Nimmo. Gravity and tectonic patterns of Mercury: Effect of tidal deformation, spin-orbit resonance, nonzero eccentricity, despinning, and reorientation. J. Geophys. Res. (2009) vol. 114 pp. E01010
Melosh. Global tectonics of a despun planet. Icarus (1977) vol. 31 pp. 221-243
Solomon. Some aspects of core formation in Mercury. Icarus (1976) vol. 28 pp. 509-521
Watters et al. Topography of lobate scarps on Mercury: New constraints on the planet's contraction. Geology (1998) vol. 26 pp. 991-994

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