1 / 11

Tolstoj Quadrangle

Tolstoj Quadrangle. Mark Robinson and Brett Denevi Arizona State University Scott Murchie, APL MESSENGER GDG Telecon 11/20/2007. Quick Reminder. From Spudis and Guest in Mercury (1988). Tolstoj Quadrangle (H8). http://ser.sese.asu.edu/M10/GAZET/index.html. Main features.

yule
Download Presentation

Tolstoj Quadrangle

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Tolstoj Quadrangle Mark Robinson and Brett Denevi Arizona State University Scott Murchie, APL MESSENGER GDG Telecon 11/20/2007

  2. Quick Reminder From Spudis and Guest in Mercury (1988)

  3. Tolstoj Quadrangle (H8) http://ser.sese.asu.edu/M10/GAZET/index.html

  4. Main features Hummocky plains Smooth plains Caloris • Intercrater plains (light orange color) • Tolstoj Basin (350 km, 3.97 Gyr) • Southern portion of Caloris (1300 km, 3.77 Gyr) • Odin formation (medium blue) similar to Alpes of Imbrium • Tolstoj, Tir, Budh (peach color) and Caloris smooth plains occupy much of the region • Mozart - fresh, large (285 km) crater on terminator • Complex structural features Budh Mozart Tir Planitia Tolstoj Tolstoj rim material Intercrater plains

  5. Significant Features • Smooth Plains (Tolstoj, Tir, Budh) • Low albedo, blue material around Tolstoj • High albedo enigmatic crater floor deposits (Tyagaraja, Zeami, Balzac) • Structural features (wrinkle ridges, lobate scarps)

  6. Smooth plains • Tir, Tolstoj, and Budh planitia all radar bright compared to surrounding intercrater plains (Harmon et al., 2004) • Opposite of lunar mare, which are radar dark due to Fe, Ti • Compositional differences between smooth plains and surroundings? • Rougher small-scale surface texture than surroundings? • Lots of small bright craters in Budh planitia (0.2-0.3) Budh Planitia

  7. Low albedo region around Tolstoj • Tolstoj smooth plains overlie dark material (below one std deviation of average Mercury albedo) • High UV/Orange ratio (among bluest material on planet), enriched in opaques (Robinson and Taylor, 2001) • Ancient crustal material or secondary process such as pyroclastic? Arrows and X indicate low reflectance material, image 675 km wide.

  8. Enigmatic crater floor materials • Good examples of these materials in Tolstoj quad • Albedos up to ~0.3 • Dark halo? Mentioned in literature… • Dzurisin (1977) - local physio-chemical alteration along impact-induced fractures • Schultz (1977) - compositional or endogenic modification possible causes of color differences Balzac Tyagaraja Zeami

  9. Structural Features • Chock full of wrinkle ridges in smooth plains • A few lobate scarps • Local compression, plains contained in broad depressions • Global compression result in lobate scarps? Smooth plains, wrinkle ridges in Tostoj Quadrangle (Tir), 800 km wide

  10. Tectonics, Geology, Image White worms indicate Wrinkle ridges Black with triangle show Lobate scarps Thanks to T. Watters!

  11. Tolstoj Quad questions for MESSENGER • Composition of smooth plains? • Why are the smooth plains radar bright? • Why is the Tolstoj material so blue? • What are the weird crater floor deposits? • Origin of structural features? • Relative Ages? M1 coverage of Tolstoj Quad

More Related