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- Title
Unraveling the Tectonic History of the Tharsis Rise on Mars: Plume Migration and Critical Taper Dome.
- Authors
Karagoz, Oguzcan; Kenkmann, Thomas; Hergarten, Stefan
- Abstract
Wrinkle ridges are widespread tectonic landforms that serve as paleo‐strain and paleo‐stress indicators of the compressional history and thermal evolution of Mars. To reconstruct the center of the Tharsis rise and its migration with time, we mapped wrinkle ridges in the periphery of the dome and analyzed 34,741 wrinkle ridge segments with a total length of 77,294 km. We determined the deviation of each wrinkle ridge segment from a concentric strike direction for systematically changing centers. A fitting procedure indicates that all wrinkle ridge segments can be allocated with good precision to five different stress centers (C1‐5) within the Tharsis rise: the southern edge of the Alba Mons caldera (C1), Ceraunius Fossae (C2), between Ulysses Patera and Pavonis Chasma (C3), Phoenicis Lacus (C4), and Claritas Rupes (C5). We performed a morphometric analysis of each wrinkle ridge and calculated the amount of shortening and depth of detachment, making use of methods for constructing balanced cross‐sections. The amount of horizontal shortening varies from 1.5 to 3.8 km and the range of the detachment depth was found to be between 2.9 and 8.8 km, with significant variance forming an acute wedge of 1.2°–2.2°. Based on the critical taper theory, we inferred a very low basal friction coefficient ranging from 0.077 to 0.093 across the detachments for the five centers (C1–C5). Our findings suggest that these detachments are either localized along salt or clay layers or occur where liquid water is dominant below an impermeable permafrost layer. Plain Language Summary: Our study investigates wrinkle ridges on Mars in the area of the Tharsis rise, which is a huge volcanic bulge. Wrinkle ridges are compressive tectonic landforms that can reveal information about the planet's tectonic history and evolution. We mapped and analyzed thousands of such wrinkle ridges and used the results to identify the stress centers that caused the wrinkle ridge formation. We identified five different stress centers in the central region of the Tharsis rise, and we used simple balanced cross‐sections to quantify the amount of radial shortening and the depth of detachment that occurred during Tharsis doming. We discovered that there was less friction than expected along the detachments, which may be due to the presence of water pressure or the existence of salt or clay layers lubricating the detachment shear planes. We evaluated the spatial‐temporal position of the plume beneath the Tharsis rise and discussed its migration with time. Key Points: The study conducted a detailed mapping of concentric wrinkle ridges, which have 34,741 segments with a total length of 77,294 kmThe detachment depths ranging from 8.8 to 2.9 km are interpreted as a critical taper with a tectonic push induced by the Tharsis riseWe identified five different causal stress centers, and the final stage of plume stress is transmitted toward Phoenicis Lacus
- Subjects
TECTONIC landforms; MARS (Planet); WATER pressure; CRITICAL theory; PERMAFROST; THRUST belts (Geology); VOLCANIC plumes
- Publication
Journal of Geophysical Research. Planets, 2024, Vol 129, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2169-9097
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2023JE007965