Strain accommodation beneath structures on Mars

Abstract

A recent review of tectonic features on Mars shows that most of their subsurface structures can be confidently extended only a few kilometers deep (exceptions are rifts, in which bounding normal faults penetrate the entire brittle lithosphere, with ductile flow at deeper levels). Nevertheless, a variety of estimates of elastic lithosphere thickness and application of accepted failure criteria under likely conditions on Mars suggest a brittle lithosphere that is many tens of kilometers thick. This raises the question of how the strain (extension or shortening) accommodated by grabens and wrinkle ridges within the upper few kilometers is being accommodated at deeper levels in the lithosphere. Herein, the nonrift tectonic features present on Mars are briefly reviewed, along with their likely subsurface structures, and some inferences and implications are presented for behavior of the deeper lithosphere.