Dramatic Volcanism Forged Mercury's Surface

alen1 · Jul 5, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volcanic activity has played a central role in forging the surface of Mercury, scientists said on Thursday based on data collected by a NASA spacecraft that zoomed past the closest planet to the sun in January.

The seven scientific instruments on the car-sized MESSENGER spacecraft also sent back information about Mercury's magnetic field and about the fact that the extremely dense planet has been shrinking more than expected over the eons.

MESSENGER has begun to resolve some of the mysteries of Mercury, a sun-baked world about a third the diameter of Earth and a bit larger than the moon.
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The dramatic and large-scale volcanism probably took the form both of humongous lava flows and violent eruptions, based on surface features seen in the images, Head said.

He estimated that the volcanic activity occurred between 3 billion and 4 billion years ago, adding that there is no evidence of ongoing volcanism on the planet's surface.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=5304781

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