Mercurian Volcanic Plains & Mantle Dynamics
Analyses of Mercury’s surface by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft have identified a large portion of the surface to be comprised of Mg-rich basaltic and basaltic komatiitic compositional plains, likely of volcanic origin. However, the compositional differences of these ancient volcanic plains cannot be explained via fractional crystallization and require…