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Science 30 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5415, pp. 794 - 798
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5415.794
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Reports

Magnetic Lineations in the Ancient Crust of Mars

J. E. P. Connerney, 1* M. H. Acuña, 1 P. J. Wasilewski, 1 N. F. Ness, 2 H. Rème, 3 C. Mazelle, 3 D. Vignes, 3 R. P. Lin, 4 D. L. Mitchell, 4 P. A. Cloutier 5

The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, in a highly elliptical polar orbit, obtained vector magnetic field measurements above the surface of Mars (altitudes >100 kilometers). Crustal magnetization, mainly confined to the most ancient, heavily cratered martian highlands, is frequently organized in east-west-trending linear features, the longest extending over 2000 kilometers. Crustal remanent magnetization exceeds that of terrestrial crust by more than an order of magnitude. Groups of quasi-parallel linear features of alternating magnetic polarity were found. They are reminiscent of similar magnetic features associated with sea floor spreading and crustal genesis on Earth but with a much larger spatial scale. They may be a relic of an era of plate tectonics on Mars.

1 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
2 Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
3 Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France.
4 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
5 Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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