Volcanic Shields on Mercury Identified at Last?
نویسندگان
چکیده
Introduction: Small (<50 km) basaltic shield volcanoes are known on Earth [1], the Moon [2], Mars [3] and Venus [4], but have not hitherto been positively identified on Mercury. A candidate on Mercury suggested by Head et al. on the basis of MESSENGER flyby imagery [5] was subsequently shown not to be a constructional edifice but to be a compound volcanic vent that had acted as a source only for explosive volcanic eruptions [6]. Here we introduce a good candidate for a small basaltic shield on Mercury, and a somewhat less convincing second candidate. Both are less than 10 km in diameter, and are situated towards the edges of lava-flooded impact basins, where one might expect to find volcanic structures. First Candidate: 123°02’14” E, 34°07’40” S.
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