Ceraunius Fossae

Ceraunius Fossae
MOLA colorized image of the Ceraunius Fossae region. The fractured terrain consists of two large patches of north-south trending faults surrounded by lava flows. The Alba Mons volcano is the large, circular feature at top.
Feature typeFracture system
LocationTharsis quadrangle
Coordinates29°12′N 251°00′E / 29.2°N 251°E / 29.2; 251[1]
DiscovererMariner 9

The Ceraunius Fossae are a set of fractures in the northern Tharsis region of Mars. They lie directly south of the large volcano Alba Mons and consist of numerous parallel faults and tension cracks that deform the ancient highland crust.[2] In places, younger lava flows cover the fractured terrain, dividing it into several large patches or islands.[3] They are found in the Tharsis quadrangle.

The faults are mainly narrow, north-south oriented graben. Graben (the name is both singular and plural) are long, narrow troughs bound by two inward-facing normal faults that enclose a downfaulted block of crust. The graben in the Ceraunius Fossae are commonly several kilometers wide, between 100 and slightly over 1000 m deep,[4] and very closely spaced, giving the terrain a rugged ridge and groove topography.[5] Many of the graben are hundreds of kilometers long[6] and have walls with complex scalloped segments.[2] Some contain pit crater chains (catenae) at their bottoms, suggesting the presence of deep-seated tension cracks into which surface material has drained.[3][5]

  1. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1105
  2. ^ a b Carr, M.H. (2006). The Surface of Mars; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, p. 87. ISBN 978-0-521-87201-0.
  3. ^ a b Raitala, J. (1988). Composite Graben Tectonics of Alba Patera on Mars. Earth, Moon, and Planets, 42, 277–291.
  4. ^ JMARS MOLA Gridded Dataset. University of Arizona. http://jmars.asu.edu/
  5. ^ a b Banerdt, W.B.; Golombek, M.P.; Tanaka, K.L. (1992). Stress and Tectonics on Mars in Mars, H.H. Kieffer et al., Eds.; University of Arizona Press: Tucson, AZ, pp. 248–297.
  6. ^ Tanaka, K.L. (1990). Tectonic history of the Alba Patera–Ceraunius Fossae Region of Mars. Lunar. Planet. Sci. Conf., 20, 515–523. http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1990LPSC...20..515T/0000515.000.html.