A New Geologic Map of the Borealis Quadrangle (H-1) on Mercury
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration, and Tools Program
Subcontract to PSI from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
PI: Noah Petro (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Science PI: Lillian Ostrach (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
Project Description
Until the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft inserted into orbit around Mercury in 2011, almost 60% of the north polar region, Borealis Quadrangle (H-1), remained imaged at illumination and viewing geometries poorly suited for morphological observations. Full image coverage of H-1 is now available, enabling the ability to create new geologic maps. Geologic maps provide a unique synthesis of the surface of a planetary body to address how geologic processes and the resulting units and features relate to each other in space and time. Geologic maps become a basis for the completion of scientific investigations of planetary surfaces, representing a fundamental tool that now requires an update for Mercury.
We propose to create a new geologic map of the Borealis Quadrangle (H-1) on Mercury at a scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M), following the mapping standards set by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The primary objective of the proposed effort is to facilitate and aid future investigations related to the geology and geologic history of the north polar region of Mercury, by improving upon the original Mariner 10-based USGS geologic map (I-1660; Grolier and Boyce, 1984) and by leveraging the new global datasets obtained MESSENGER. The primary deliverable of this effort will be a Scientific Investigations Map (SIM) published through the USGS, enabling dissemination throughout the scientific community.
This mapping investigation will use only publicly accessible, PDS-released MESSENGER data to construct a geologic map of H-1 through three tasks: Geologic mapping (Task 1), Age determination (Task 2), and Map publication (Task 3). Pursuant to PDART requirements, beyond the minimal analyses required to establish geologic units, measure craters, and determine ages, no hypothesis-based science will be conducted.
This proposed H-1 quadrangle map would be the first USGS-published geologic map covering the entirety of the north polar region of Mercury. This new map will vastly improve upon the original USGS geologic map that had ~40% coverage (Grolier and Boyce, 1984), in part by filling in the unmapped region in the Mariner 10 data. The proposed map for H-1 would incorporate multiple datasets obtained by MESSENGER, in addition to synthesizing results of recent publications, to document and develop a regional stratigraphic history of the north polar region that would be useful to future scientific investigations (e.g., theoretical modeling of volcanic smooth plains emplacement, influence of pre-flooding topography on northern smooth plains boundaries, history of tectonic deformation within the northern smooth plains) and future mission planning for the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission.
The generation of an USGS-published SIM of the Borealis Quadrangle (H-1) will enhance future scientific investigations of the north polar region on Mercury. The production of this cartographic product will generate a scientifically valuable higher- order data product, an objective of the PDART program. The new geologic map will be made available to the scientific community via the USGS Publication Warehouse, which is the sole archival vehicle for geologic maps that have completed the USGS review process.
