title: Evolution of the Rembrandt impact basin on Mercury.
abstract: MESSENGER's second Mercury flyby revealed a ~715-kilometer-diameter impact basin, the second-largest well-preserved basin-scale impact structure known on the planet. The Rembrandt basin is comparable in age to the Caloris basin, is partially flooded by volcanic plains, and displays a unique wheel-and-spoke-like pattern of basin-radial and basin-concentric wrinkle ridges and graben. Stratigraphic relations indicate a multistaged infilling and deformational history involving successive or overlapping phases of contractional and extensional deformation. The youngest deformation of the basin involved the formation of a approximately 1000-kilometer-long lobate scarp, a product of the global cooling and contraction of Mercury.
authors.affiliation: Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA. watterst@si.edu
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Watters
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Head
authors.forename: Sean C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Clark R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: Brett W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Denevi
authors.forename: Caleb I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Fassett
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Murchie
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Strom