A high-resolution digital elevation model derived from stereo images obtained by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft has revealed Mercury’s great valley shown here in this 3D perspective view. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/DLR/Smithsonian Institution.
Scientists have discovered a new Great Valley on Mercury that may be the first evidence of buckling of the planet’s outer silicate shell of its lithosphere (its crust and upper mantle) in response to global contraction. The researchers discovered the valley using a new high-resolution topographic map of part of Mercury’s southern hemisphere created by stereo images from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.
Earth’s lithosphere is broken up into many tectonic plates, but Mercury’s lithos...
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