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UCLA scientist discovers plate tectonics on Mars
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-scientist-discovers-plate-237303.aspx
By Stuart Wolpert
August 09, 2012
View of central segment of Mars' Valles Marineris, in which an older circular basin created by an impact is offset for about 93 miles (150 kilometers) by a fault.
(Credit: Image from Google Mars created by MOLA Science Team)
For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics
existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a UCLA scientist
has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the
movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet's surface, also exists
on Mars.
"Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a
glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us
understand how plate tectonics began on Earth," said An Yin, a UCLA
professor of Earth and space sciences and the sole author of the new
research.
Yin made the discovery during his analysis of satellite images from
THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System), an instrument on board the
Mars Odyssey spacecraft, and from the HIRISE (High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. He
analyzed about 100 satellite images — approximately a dozen were
revealing of plate tectonics.
Yin has conducted geologic research in the Himalayas and Tibet, where two of the Earth's seven major plates divide.
"When I studied the satellite images from Mars, many of the
features looked very much like fault systems I have seen in the
Himalayas and Tibet, and in California as well, including the
geomorphology," said Yin, a planetary geologist.
For example, he saw a very smooth, flat side of a canyon wall,
which can be generated only by a fault, and a steep cliff, comparable to
cliffs in California's Death Valley, which also are generated by a
fault. Mars has a linear volcanic zone, which Yin said is a typical
product of plate tectonics.
"You don't see these features anywhere else on other planets in our
solar system, other than Earth and Mars," said Yin, whose research is
featured as the cover story in the August issue of the journal
Lithosphere.
The surface of Mars contains the longest and deepest system of
canyons in our solar system, known as Valles Marineris (Latin for
Mariner Valleys and named for the Mariner 9 Mars orbiter of 1971–72,
which discovered it). It is nearly 2,500 miles long — about nine times
longer than the Earth's Grand Canyon. Scientists have wondered for four
decades how it formed. Was it a big crack in Mars' shell that opened up?
"In the beginning, I did not expect plate tectonics, but the more I
studied it, the more I realized Mars is so different from what other
scientists anticipated," Yin said. "I saw that the idea that it is just a
big crack that opened up is incorrect. It is really a plate boundary,
with horizontal motion. That is kind of shocking, but the evidence is
quite clear.
"The shell is broken and is moving horizontally over a long
distance. It is very similar to the Earth's Dead Sea fault system, which
has also opened up and is moving horizontally."
The two plates divided by Mars' Valles Marineris have moved
approximately 93 miles horizontally relative to each other, Yin said.
California's San Andreas Fault, which is over the intersection of two
plates, has moved about twice as much — but the Earth is about twice the
size of Mars, so Yin said they are comparable.
Yin, whose research is partly funded by the National Science
Foundation, calls the two plates on Mars the Valles Marineris North and
the Valles Marineris South.
"Earth has a very broken 'egg shell,' so its surface has many
plates; Mars' is slightly broken and may be on the way to becoming very
broken, except its pace is very slow due to its small size and, thus,
less thermal energy to drive it," Yin said. "This may be the reason Mars
has fewer plates than on Earth."
Mars has landslides, and Yin said a fault is shifting the landslides, moving them from their source.
Does Yin think there are Mars-quakes?
"I think so," he said. "I think the fault is probably still active,
but not every day. It wakes up every once in a while, over a very long
duration — perhaps every million years or more."
Yin is very confident in his findings, but mysteries remain, he
said, including how far beneath the surface the plates are located.
"I don't quite understand why the plates are moving with such a
large magnitude or what the rate of movement is; maybe Mars has a
different form of plate tectonics," Yin said. "The rate is much slower
than on Earth."
The Earth has a broken shell with seven major plates; pieces of the
shell move, and one plate may move over another. Yin is doubtful that
Mars has more than two plates.
"We have been able to identify only the two plates," he said. "For
the other areas on Mars, I think the chances are very, very small. I
don't see any other major crack."
Did the movement of Valles Marineris North and Valles Marineris
South create the enormous canyons on Mars? What led to the creation of
plate tectonics on Earth?
Yin, who will continue to study plate tectonics on Mars, will
answer those questions in a follow-up paper that he also plans to
publish in the journal Lithosphere.
Watch videos of Yin demonstrating plate tectonics and briefly discussing his career.
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