A preliminary analysis of the Mariner 10 color ratio map of Mercury

Details A preliminary analysis of the Mariner 10 color ratio map of Mercury A preliminary analysis of the Mariner 10 color ratio map of Mercury

May 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987pggp.rept..229r&link_type=abstract

In NASA, Washington, Reports of Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program, 1986 p 229 (SEE N87-23341 16-91)

Physics

Geophysics

1

Color, Maps, Mercury Surface, Photogeology, Planetary Composition, Planetary Geology, Spectral Reflectance, Terrain, Albedo, Iron, Lava, Mariner 10 Space Probe, Plains, Planetary Crusts, Planetary Mapping, Rocks, Volcanology

Scientific paper

A preliminary geological analysis of the Mariner 10 orange/UV color ratio map of Mercury is given, assuming a basaltic crust. Certain errors in the map are pointed out. The relationship between color and terrain are distinctly non-lunar. Rays and ejecta are bluer than average on Mercury, whereas they are redder on the Moon. This fact, along with the lack of the ferrous band in Mercury's spectral reflectance and smaller albedo contrasts, implies that the crust is low in Fe and Ti. There is no correlation between color boundaries and the smooth plains on Mercury, in contrast with the strong correlation between color and maria-highlands contacts on the Moon. The smooth plains are not Mercurian analogs of lunar maria, and a lunar-type of second wave melting did not occur. Ambiguous correlations between color and topography indicate that older, redder materials underlie younger, bluer rocks in many places on the planet, implying that the last stages of volcanism involved low-Fe lavas covering higher-Fe rocks. There is some evidence of late Fe-rich pyroclastic activity.

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