Geometry and kinematics of wrinkle ridges on Lunae and Solis Plana, Mars: implications for fault/fold growth history.

Details Geometry and kinematics of wrinkle ridges on Lunae and Solis Plana, Mars: implications for fault/fold growth history. Geometry and kinematics of wrinkle ridges on Lunae and Solis Plana, Mars: implications for fault/fold growth history.

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p42a0561t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P42A-0561

Physics

5475 Tectonics (8149), 6225 Mars

Scientific paper

The morphology of wrinkle ridges in Lunae and Solis Plana, Mars, were analyzed using elevation data recently acquired by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Measurements of wrinkle ridge width, relief and slope constrain the structural origin of these features. The greater resolution of MOLA data allow more accurate mapping of wrinkle ridge morphology and suggest they are wider than previously reported. Kinematic analysis suggests that wrinkle ridges are fault-propagation folds formed above steeply dipping ( ~50 {o}) subjacent blind thrust faults that extend 15--25 km into the Martian crust to a décollement level interpreted as the brittle to ductile transition. This provides an estimate of upper crustal thickness and heat flow at the time the wrinkle ridges were formed in the Early Hesperian (3.1--3.8 Ga). However, the total horizontal shortening accommodated across the ridges is very low (50--90 m) compared to their average lengths ( ~100 km). Displacement to length calculations suggest that wrinkle ridges form by reactivation of pre-existing faults in a compressional environment. The steep dips of the pre-existing faults, coupled with model evidence for a radial stress regime prior to 3.1--3.8 Ga, suggests that the pre-existing faults were high-angle normal faults circumferentially orientated around Tharsis. The majority of the wrinkle ridges verge east, suggesting that subjacent faults dip west towards Tharsis. Analysis of strike profiles suggest wrinkle ridges have characteristic segmentation formed by lateral propagation and linkage of short individual segments into longer structures. Lateral variations in wrinkle ridge cross-sectional area and forelimb dip provides further evidence for lateral propagation of these structures. The magnitude and sense of elevation offset measured across wrinkle ridges suggests significant variability exists in the dip of subjacent blind thrust faults and may not be directly related to hangingwall uplift as previously suggested.

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