RT journal article
T1 Depth of faulting and ancient heat flows in the Kuiper region of Mercury from lobate scarp topography
A1 Egea González, María Isabel
A1 Ruiz, Javier
A1 Fernández, Carlos
A1 Williams, Jean Pierre
A1 Márquez, Álvaro
A1 Lara, Luisa
A2 Física Aplicada
K1 Mercury
K1 Lobate scarp
K1 Depth of faulting
K1 Brittle-ductil transition
K1 Heat flow
AB Mercurian lobate scarps are interpreted to be the surface expressions of thrust faults formed byplanetary cooling and contraction, which deformed the crust down to the brittle–ductile transition(BDT) depth at the time of faulting. In this work we have used a forward modeling procedure in order toanalyze the relation between scarp topography and fault geometries and depths associated with agroup of prominent lobate scarps (Santa Maria Rupes and two unnamed scarps) located in the Kuiperregion of Mercury for which Earth-based radar altimetry is available. Also a backthrust associated withone of the lobate scarps has been included in this study. We have obtained best fits for depths offaulting between 30 and 39 km; the results are consistent with the previous results for other lobatescarps on Mercury.The so-derived fault depths have been used to calculate surface heat flows for the time of faulting,taking into account crustal heat sources and a heterogeneous surface temperature due to the variableinsolation pattern. Deduced surface heat flows are between 19 and 39 mW m2 for the Kuiper region,and between 22 and 43 mW m2 for Discovery Rupes. Both BDT depths and heat flows are consistentwith the predictions of thermal history models for the range of time relevant for scarp formation
PB Elsevier
SN 0032-0633
YR 2012
FD 2012
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32082
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32082
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026