Earth, Moon, and Planets

, Volume 42, Issue 3, pp 277–291 | Cite as

Composite graben tectonics of Alba Patera on Mars

  • Jouko Raitala
Article
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Abstract

The Alba Patera main graben zone is radial to the Tharsis bulge, indicating the importance of the Tharsis bulge-related peripheral rift tectonics. The concentric grabens around the Alba Patera area are also partly caused by crustal bending due to the central load of the Alba Patera volcano. These two graben sets partly coincide forming composite structures. Both tectonic systems were still active after the last major volcanic lava extrusions took place. After this, the crater chain grabens, radial to the northernmost part of the Tharsis bulge were formed. These collapse craters were evidently caused by the late-tectonic forces due to the northern Tharsis and adjoining lava loads, resulting in flexural tension and activating previous faults.

Keywords

Alba Composite Structure Central Load Northernmost Part Tectonic System 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1988

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jouko Raitala
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of AstronomyUniversity of OuluOuluFinland

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