Mercury Geology

The theory of plate tectonics states that Earth’s outer shell is divided into plates. The crust and upper mantle is broken into plates that move around on the mantle, changing in size throughout time. The lithosphere makes up the crust and upper mantle and the asthenosphere a plastic like layer beneath the lithosphere. There are three types of plate boundaries. Divergent boundaries where two plates move away from each other. The ocean widens and new crust forms at the mid-oceanic ridge. Convergent boundaries has three types of converging, moving two plates towards each other. First we have an ocean floor plate that collides with a less dense continental plate. Next an ocean floor plate collides with another ocean floor plate. Finally a continental plate collides with another continental plate. Transform boundaries were two plates slide past one another. The resulting effects of plate tectonics is landforms such as rift valleys,

Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is a rocky planet. The heavily cratered planet suggests that meteors or comets were frequent many, many years ago. Mercury's boulder littered surface and pale gray appearance slightly resembles Earth's moon. Like Mars, Mercury is covered in pulverized dust. What Mercury lacks in this, is weather. Muggle probes bring images to us that show no signs of wind, dust storms, or clouds. No rivers have been found on Mercury. Lack of clouds and rivers, (and oceans) suggests that there is no water on the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury. One of Mercury's most famous craters is Caloris basin, which is 1550 km in diameter. Another of Mercury's most famous craters is called Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff is 306 km in diameter. These two very large craters were created by astroids impacting the planet in Mercury's early history.

During the 1850’s the California gold rush started which brought with it many different methods to find the precious metal. One of these methods was to use mercury to recover the gold deposits which were at different depths. “Mercury was used to enhance gold recovery in all the various types of mining operations; historical records indicate that more mercury was used and lost at hydraulic mines than at other types of mines”(Alpers, 2005). This made mercury a necessity in mining gold and was used widely until the 1960’s. “Most of the mercury used in gold recovery in California was obtained from mercury deposits in the Coast Range on the west side of California's Central Valley. Total mercury production in California between 1850 and 1981 was more than 220,000,000 lb”(Alpers, 2005).

Mercury is a rocky, gray planet that very closely resembles the Earth’s Moon on the surface. Mercury’s surface is full of craters, boulders, and pulverized dust. Its many craters can be tiny or massive. Mercury is geologically inactive, and has been for an extended amount of time. There is an absence of weather on Mercury, and it does not have an atmosphere. Because it has no atmosphere, it cannot control the variations in temperature from day to night, and the temperatures on the planet can range from 90 Kelvin to 700 Kelvin. There are no signs of clouds, rivers (or any other body of water), or dust storms on Mercury. What we know about Mercury and its surface is from information brought back by Mariner 10 and the Messenger mission in the last few decades.

Mercury is also the smallest planet in our solar system, it is slightly larger than Earth’s moon in fact. Astronomers think about 4 billion years ago an asteroid roughly 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide hit Mercury with an impact equal to 1 trillion leaving a vast impact crater. The crater is known as Caloris Basin and the crater can hold the whole state of Texas. In 2012 NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft discovered that there are water ice in the craters in the north pole on Mercury. The north pole on Mercury may be shaded permanently from the sun, that's why the water ice can be there. The south pole on Mercury may have also contained water ice but the MESSENGERS orbit didn’t allow scientists to probe the area. Scientists think that comets or meteorites may have delivered the water ice there. Even though Mercury is already really small it continues to shrink today. Mercury is made up of a single continental plate over a cooling iron core. When the core cools, it solidifies, reducing the planet’s volume which causes Mercury to shrink and get even

Earthquakes occur along tectonic plate boundaries and fault lines. Movement of tectonic plates can be associated with three different types of boundaries: divergent, convergent, and transform. The lithosphere forms the outer most layer of the earth’s crust, which over lays a hotter, softer layer called the asthenosphere. A divergent boundary is located along a margin where two plates are moving away from one another. As the two plates move away from one another magma flows up into the empty space, and forms a new section of the ocean floor. The creation of a new sea floor along a divergent boundary produces oceanic ridges. The best know example of this type of boundary is the mid- Atlantic ridge. Convergent boundaries occur in area’s where two plates merge forcing the lithosphere below the asthenosphere. Once the lithosphere is forced back down into the earth, it is melted and reused as magma volcanic arcs. This type of boundary forms oceanic trenches. Transform boundary occurs when two continental

The atmosphere on Venus is composed of mostly Carbon dioxide with small amounts of nitrogen and sulphuric acid. This composition causes a runaway greenhouse gas effect that makes the planet even hotter than Mercury, despite the fact that Mercury is much closer to the sun. The air on Venus is incredibly dense due to the Nitrogen content, which, whilst admittedly is only a small part of the atmospheric composition, is at least four times the amount on Earth. This Atmospheric composition therefore creates a thick layer of

After the sun sets, the planet Mercury is out. The telescope rocks back and forth from the wind, but a small charm is cast and it stabilizes. The brightness of the moon is distracting to the plain eye, but this telescope was enchanted to focus. With the light dying and the wind whipping around the Astronomy Tower, you'd think it would be hard to see the details of Mercury, but the planet was in perfect view. The surface of the planet looked like a burn victims skin, craters upon craters devoured the graying celestial object. Boulders covered the area that was smooth and the bottom of the pits. Mercury's craters had formed in paths that looked almost like rivers flowing on the surface, which, upon closer inspection, proved to be almost accurate.

There are a few other reasons why Venus cannot sustain human life. One of them is because of a huge cloud that surrounds Venus. This cloud is made up of corrosive acid, which is due to the sulfur from volcanic eruptions on Venus. The second reason is because the atmosphere pressure on Venus is also ninety times stronger than it is on earth, which is strong enough to crush a car. The third and final reason we would not be able to live on Venus is because the atmosphere of Venus is nearly all Carbon Dioxide, which makes the temperatures over nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

You are now ready to explore every planet in our solar system. You will learn tons of cool facts about each planet. This will also teach you about where the names of our planets came from and what the planet is known for. Mercury and its speed.

Venus is one of the four terrestrial planets in our Solar System. One of the reasons that it is considered a terrestrial planet is because it has a rocky surface. This is because most of the surface seems to have been shaped by volcanic activity. Its crust is much older than Earth's crust. Due to its age, Venus has several volcanoes that are much larger than anything that we have on Earth. Another weird aspect of Venus, is that the majority of the craters are in a perfect condition. The craters on Earth for instance show signs of decay and decomposition. The reasoning behind this difference is that since Earth is made up of plates, these plates are constantly moving. This is not so on Venus.

Scientists examined the Venusian atmosphere and found out that above the clouds the temperature is about 13oC, in contrast, at the surface of Venus the temperature gets as high as 465oC. It is believed that the principle cause of the extreme surface temperature is the consequence abundant carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Scientists concluded that Venusian atmosphere undergoes greenhouse effect. In essence, the heat delivered from the Sun enter the atmosphere and is radiated out, then again, it does not leave the atmosphere due to its heavy clouds that impede it from such. For this reason, Venus’ surface temperature is higher than that on Mercury – higher than any other planet! – leaving no chance of life.

Venus' atmosphere is approximately 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen, with traces of elements and compounds such as carbon monoxide and helium. Its atmospheric pressure, therefore, is 90 times heavier than that of Earth's. Near the surface of Venus is a thick layer of carbon dioxide, and above that are layers of clouds of sulfuric acid. These clouds of sulfuric acid are highly reflective and reflect more than 90% of the sunlight that hits Venus, and this means that Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky, behind the Sun and the Moon. These clouds, and Venus' atmosphere have also contributed to a 'runaway greenhouse effect' on Venus, causing its climate to be permanently changed. Theories suggest that Venus once had a climate similar

Mercury, named after the Roman God of Thievery, Commerce, and Travel, is the first planet from the Sun. It is unique because it shows at both morning rise and evening set of the sun. It is rocky, heavily cratered, covered in boulders, and also pulverized dust. The majority of it's surface bears a strong resemblance to that of Earth's moon. It's lack of atmosphere causes wild temperature fluctuations. Temperatures can range from 90 kelvin to 700 kelvin thus creating a planet, from all observations, that cannot sustain life--it is geologically dead. Mercury also has a magnetic field generated by the planet's core that can deflect solar wind and which has a magnetosphere that changes. This was surprising for such a slow rotating planet--one that rotates completely every 88 Earth days.

The surface has volcanoes and smooth plains. " Much of the volcanic activity on Venus takes the form of Basaltic eruptions that inundate large ares, much as the mare volcanism flooded the impacted basins on the near side of the moon " (Morrison, 93,