Evolution of the Rembrandt impact basin on Mercury.
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.
Watters
Thomas R
TR
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA. watterst@si.edu
Head
James W
JW
Solomon
Sean C
SC
Robinson
Mark S
MS
Chapman
Clark R
CR
Denevi
Brett W
BW
Fassett
Caleb I
CI
Murchie
Scott L
SL
Strom
Robert G
RG