Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p31c0153z&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P31C-0153
Physics
5799 General Or Miscellaneous, 6099 General Or Miscellaneous, 6299 General Or Miscellaneous
Scientific paper
Large, arcuate faults in the Tharsis region of Mars are here interpreted to be a Giant Binucleus-Type Vortex Structure. Centered in Tharsis Montes (247.4°E, 0.9°N) with a radius of ~3500 km, and here named the Tharsis Binucleus-Type Vortex Structure (TBVS), it extends into both the southern and northern hemispheres of Mars. The pattern of the major extensional faults related to the TBVS includes a northern portion and a southern portion and is characterized by a sigmoid structure. In the northern portion adjacent to the Alba Patera summit cone (Tantalus Fossae), extensional faults trend northeast or north-east-north while faults found south of Alba Patera (Ceraunius Fossae) trend north-south. The extensional faults sited south to southwest of Tharsis Montes mainly trend to the southwest. As a typical feature the faults located south-east-south of Tharsis Montes (Claritas Fossae) show an obvious curved shape: the northern part trends northwest and north- west-north while the southern part trends north-east-north and northeast. Turbine-like extensional faults around Tharsis Montes are distinguished. Five examples of binucleus-type vortex structures on Earth were found and researched by Zuoxun Zeng and Lilin Liu (1990, 1992 and 1993). The TBVS is similar to the Yegezikala binucleus-type vortex structure (Zuoxun Zeng, 1990) in terms of the nuclear column: two cores linking together as one magma body. Physical modeling and numerical modeling using finite-element analysis indicate that the formation of the TBVS is related to torsional shear around the center of Tharsis Montes. The torsional shear is possibly a result of the twist of the Martian crust about its axis due to differential rotation between the two hemispheres. The earlier twist of the Martian crust controlled the northeast-trending fractures, magma bodies and volcano chains. The cooled and fixed northeast-trending magma bodies in the Tharsis area played the role of nuclear columns during the formation of the binucleus-type vortex structure. This work is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and the China Scholarship Council.
Birnbaum S.
Liu Lin
Xie Hehu
Yang Wei
Zeng Zhi
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