NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Portrait of a Scarp

Of Interest: This image, taken with the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC), shows a simple crater within Rembrandt Basin. Running through the crater is a lobate scarp, formed as Mercury's large iron core cooled and contracted, generating compressive forces that pushed one section of the planet's crust over the top of another section. Determining the geometry of such scarps and the time periods when deformation occurred can help scientists to understand the thermal history of the planet.

Date acquired: February 05, 2012

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington