East-west faulting and buckling from the contraction of a lithosphere thinner at the equator, with applications to Mercury and Iapetus

Details East-west faulting and buckling from the contraction of a lithosphere thinner at the equator, with applications to Mercury and Iapetus East-west faulting and buckling from the contraction of a lithosphere thinner at the equator, with applications to Mercury and Iapetus

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p41a..09b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P41A-09

Other

[5475] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Tectonics, [6235] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mercury, [6280] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Saturnian Satellites

Scientific paper

The global distribution of ancient tectonic features on several telluric planets (Mercury, Mars) and icy satellites (Ganymede, Iapetus, Rhea, Dione, Ariel) suggests that their tectonics result in large part from the early global deformation of the planetary figure. Four main mechanisms affect the planetary shape at large scale: contraction (or expansion), despinning, tidal deformation and reorientation relative to the spin axis. The predictions of the global mechanical models however seldom match the observed tectonic features, one reason being the influence of regional stresses. Another cause of the mismatch is the neglect of the lithospheric thinning at the equator either due to latitudinal variation in solar insolation or due to localized tidal dissipation. Using thin elastic shells with variable thickness, I show that the equatorial thinning of the lithosphere transforms the homogeneous and isotropic fault pattern caused by contraction (or expansion) into a pattern of faults striking east-west, preferably formed in the equatorial region, whereas the faulting due to despinning is only weakly affected. In the case of Mercury, the combination of contraction and despinning may generate thrust faults striking either north-south or east-west according to the latitude.This pattern is relevant to the distribution and orientation of lobate scarps and high-relief ridges. As for Iapetus, contraction stresses account for the emplacement of the equatorial ridge. I further examine the hypothesis of ridge formation by elastic buckling of the lithosphere. Though it is possible to generate a unique narrow ridge along the equator, the critical buckling stress exceeds the yield stress of ice. Elastic buckling is thus not the cause of Iapetus' ridge.

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