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. 2023 Mar 24;9(12):eadd6452.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.add6452. Epub 2023 Mar 24.

Low sulfide concentration in Mercury's smooth plains inhibits hollows

Océane Barraud  1   2 , Sébastien Besse  3 , Alain Doressoundiram  1
Affiliations

Low sulfide concentration in Mercury's smooth plains inhibits hollows

Océane Barraud et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

MESSENGER (Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) mission to Mercury led to the discovery of hollows. These geological landforms have no close counterpart on other airless silicate bodies. Multispectral images and geochemical measurements by MESSENGER suggest that hollows are formed by the loss of volatile-bearing minerals. We investigated the mineralogical composition of the hollows using near-ultraviolet to near-infrared spectra obtained by MESSENGER. We compared reflectance spectra of hollows with laboratory spectra of Mercury's analogs: sulfides, chlorides, silicates, and graphite. The best candidates to reproduce the curvature of the hollow spectra are calcium sulfide, magnesium sulfide, and sodium sulfide. In addition, we performed spectral modeling with spectra obtained at the highest spectral and spatial resolution within the hollows. Our results show that the enrichment of sulfides in hollow material is up to two times higher than the sulfide concentration derived from chemical measurements of Mercury's high-reflectance smooth plains. This result explains the small percentage of hollows found within these plains.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Hollows’ average spectra.
(A) Average spectra obtained for each group of hollows (continuous lines) and each host crater floor (dashed lines). These spectra are used for spectral modeling (see Materials and Methods). (B) Representation of Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Spectrometer (MASCS)/Visible and Infrared Spectrograph (VIRS) footprints (ob3_13276_093728) used in the Hopper impact crater (EN0223616383M; 49 m per pixel). The hollow spectra exhibit a strong concave curvature between 300 and 600 nm and higher reflectance as expected.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Hollows and laboratory spectra.
Average spectrum of hollows within the Tyagaraja, Hopper, Eminescu, and Warhol impact craters compared to laboratory spectra of sulfides (A), silicates (B), chlorides (C), and graphite (D). The spectra are normalized at 750 nm for comparison. The purple shaded region is the standard deviation (SD) of hollow spectra. Only the sulfide spectra with positive values of curvature parameter are represented.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Analysis of the hollow facies in the Eminescu impact crater.
(A) Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Spectrometer (MASCS) footprints analyzed here (ob4_14327_010045 and ob4_14326_164731) superimposed to the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)/Narrow Angle Camera image EN0251632156M (35 m per pixel). The spatial resolution of the MASCS footprints ranges from 0.3 to 1.7 km. (B) Fraction of laboratory spectra and X2 derived from the spectral modeling (table S5).
Description
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