The Thickest Regions of Mars: Does the connection of the South Pole to Tharsis Rise indicate a mantle plume track?

Details The Thickest Regions of Mars: Does the connection of the South Pole to Tharsis Rise indicate a mantle plume track? The Thickest Regions of Mars: Does the connection of the South Pole to Tharsis Rise indicate a mantle plume track?

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p31b1712c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P31B-1712

Physics

[1221] Geodesy And Gravity / Lunar And Planetary Geodesy And Gravity, [5417] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Gravitational Fields, [5455] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Origin And Evolution, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars

Scientific paper

We have conducted a series of experiment to estimate Mars' crustal and mantle structures utilizing MOLA topography and gravity data from the MGS spacecraft along with the algorithm of Wieczorek and Phillips [1] and Wieczorek's SHTOOLS code. We have generated crustal thickness and gravity misfit plots using linear, non-linear, and isostatic approximations for gravity from crustal thickness. These models consistently reveal that the thick crust on Mars encompasses mainly the southern hemisphere with the thickest regions at the South Pole and the Tharsis Rise region, including the volcano, Alba Patera. The thickest regions seem to form a connected path, starting at the South Pole, leading northwest toward Tharsis Rise and ending at Alba Patera, consistent with the mantle plume track proposed by Sramek and Zhong [2, 3]. The thick crustal path further supports a plume origin for Tharsis volcanism based on the larger amount of material present in the region. Subsequent results from this study will help us better understand the origin of this feature and its implications for the thermal history of Mars. [1] Wieczorek M. A. and Phillips R. J. (1998) JGR, 103, E1, 1715-1724. [2] Zhong S. (2009) Nature Geoscience, 2, 19-23. [3] Sramek O. and Zhong S. (2010) JGR, 115, E09010.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Thickest Regions of Mars: Does the connection of the South Pole to Tharsis Rise indicate a mantle plume track? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Thickest Regions of Mars: Does the connection of the South Pole to Tharsis Rise indicate a mantle plume track?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Thickest Regions of Mars: Does the connection of the South Pole to Tharsis Rise indicate a mantle plume track? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-870244