Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p33b1455w&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P33B-1455
Mathematics
Logic
5417 Gravitational Fields (1221), 5430 Interiors (8147), 5455 Origin And Evolution, 5475 Tectonics (8149), 5480 Volcanism (6063, 8148, 8450)
Scientific paper
Whether the topography of Mars is supported by loading of an elastic shell at the surface or by viscous flow in the interior has been debated. On Mars, in particular, because a significant portion of the gravity and topography signals is manifested in the Tharsis province, distinguishing these two mechanisms is also crucial to deciphering origin and formation of Tharsis. Here I address this issue by separating various components of the topography related to different geological events and studying them through jointly modelling the observed geoid on the basis of elastic loading and viscous flow. The observed topography of the major volcanoes on Mars, Tharsis, Elysium and Olympus, can account for the residual topography (the observed topography with the exclusion of the major impact basins and north-south dichotomy) and explain the observed geoid by loading response of an 100-km thick surface elastic layer at the intermediate wavelengths of spherical harmonic degrees l = 4 - 12. However, at the longest wavelengths (l = 2 -3), the volcano topography exhibits considerably less magnitude than the residual topography, and significantly under- predicts geoid on the basis of the elastic loading model inferred from the observations at the intermediate wavelengths. Viscous flow calculations indicate that these unexplained long-wavelength topography and geoid are consistent with existence of a low-density anomaly in the deep Martian mantle beneath Tharsis. A thermo-chemical nature of the low-density anomaly explains not only its presence, but also the formation, tectonic activities and evolution of Tharsis, suggesting compositional anomalies in the deep planetary mantle play a key role in the planet evolution.
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