Mercury'S Radar Bright Region C: Mg-rich Orthopyroxene And Olivine, K-spar, Iron-free Tio2, Ca- And Mg-garnet Indicate Possible Deep Crust Or Mantle Rock Exposures

Details Mercury'S Radar Bright Region C: Mg-rich Orthopyroxene And Olivine, K-spar, Iron-free Tio2, Ca- And Mg-garnet Indicate Possible Deep Crust Or Mantle Rock Exposures Mercury'S Radar Bright Region C: Mg-rich Orthopyroxene And Olivine, K-spar, Iron-free Tio2, Ca- And Mg-garnet Indicate Possible Deep Crust Or Mantle Rock Exposures

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.3902k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #39.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.466

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We identify mineral phases and approximate abundances on Mercury's surface for a large (600 by 600 km) region at and around radar bright region C (Harmon, 1997, Adv. Space Res.). Our results are obtained by fitting spectra obtained with the Mid-Infrared Spectrometer and Imager (MIRSI) at the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) using an established spectral deconvolution algorithm (Ramsey 1996, Ph.D. Dissertation, ASU; Ramsey and Christiansen 1998, JGR). We have assembled several laboratory mineral spectral libraries (JHU, Salisbury et al. 1987, Open-File Report 87-263, USGS; JPL, http://speclib.jpl.nasa.gov; RELAB, http://www.planetary.brown.edu/relab; ASU, Christensen et al. 2000, JGR; BED, Helbert et al. 2007, Adv. Space Res.; USGS, Clark et al. 2007, USGS digital spectral library) with a wide range of known mineral compositions with grain sizes ranging from the finest separates, 0 - 45 µm, incrementally increasing to 250 - 400 µm. For the region 110° to 130° E longitude and 0° to 20° N latitude we find enstatite and Mg-rich hypersthene, K-spar (either sanidine or orthoclase), intermediate plagioclase compositions, Mg-rich olivine, an iron-free opaque phase of either (TiO2) or perovskite (CaTiO3). Small abundances of Mg- and Ca- rich garnet are also apparently present. These minerals are indicative of possible excavated upper mantle material that may be causing the high radar backscatter at this location. This work was funded by NSF AST0406796.

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