Investigating the Neruda-Paramour thrust system, Mercury

International audienceOur tectonic mapping as part of a larger morphostratigraphic mapping effort of the H13, NerudaQuadrangle (1) has led us to recognise the “Neruda-Paramour” thrust system. The system appearsto extend from the southern limits of H13 north through H09 and H08 and simplifies at its northernend into Paramour Rupes (Figure 1). Mercury’s tectonic evolution is dominated by global scalecontractional structures of which the Neruda-Paramour system is part of (2). These structures arebelieved to have formed either by secular cooling of the planet (3), tidal despinning (4), mantleoverturn (5), true polar wander (6) or a combination of these processes. Regardless of the process,Mercury’s surface exhibits abundant evidence of global contraction in the form of shorteningstructures such as lobate scarps, high relief ridges and wrinkles ridges (7,8). These features arewidely accepted as the surface expressions of thrust faulting and folding, produced by lithospherichorizontal compression. Often, these contractional features comprise major thrust systems as linkedsegments with a consistent trend (8). In order to understand the development of the Neruda-Paramour system and to ascertain if there is any sequence of movements, we are first mapping thesystem in its entirety followed by age dating of each thrust segment’s last movement using thebuffered crater counting (BCC) techniqu