Mars Mission
01- Canals
02- Mariners
03- Riverbeds
04- Sub-surface Ice
05- Fleet
06- Martian Ice
07- Slope Streaks
08- Water Found
09- Phyllocian Era
10- Theikian Era
11- Siderikan Era
12- Martian Regions
13- Obliquity
14- Martian Tectonics
15- Topographic Morph
16- Crustal Magnetism
17- Original Impact
18- Polar Regions
19- Hydrated Minerals
20- Theikian Warming
21- New Phoenix Snow
22- Equatorial Glaciers
23- Ancient Ice
24- Continental Snow Drift

16 - Crustal Magnetism

Click here for enlarged diagram


 

The three extensional plates of the seabeds of Central America, having become an epicentre for increased earthquake and volcanic activity, continue to drive the overall pattern of the shield and plate movement. As this tectonic activity slows and eventually ceases, these fault lines and resulting areas of volcanic activity, come to rest at the positioning of the three large shield volcanoes of Tharsis, on the far side of Olympus Mons. The continuing spread of the Pacific seabeds becomes the Utopia Planitia of the Northern Plains. This movement can also be seen in the crustal magnetism.

The combined spreading of the seabeds and the reduction in the size of the sphere lead to an increasingly parallel crustal magnetic field, with warped and circular areas where the continents and the now shredded original shields are pushed together and swamped by new volcanic material ( note - terminology ). These can be seen around Syrtis Major and on either side of Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris.

   
  Alan Lambert © 2009