LITHOSPHERIC FLEXURE BENEATH THE FREYJA MONTES FOREDEEP, VENUS - CONSTRAINTS ON LITHOSPHERIC THERMAL-GRADIENT AND HEAT-FLOW

Analysis of Venera 15 and 16 radar images and topographic data from the Freyja Montes region on Venus suggest that this mountain belt formed as a result of a sequence of underthrusts of the lithosphere of the North Polar Plains beneath the highlands of Ishtar Terra, The Freyja Montes deformation zone consists, south to north, of a linear orogenic belt, an adjacent plateau, a steep scarp separating the plateau from the North Polar Plains, a linear depression at the base of the scarp, and an outer rise. The topographic profile of the depression and outer rise are remarkably similar to that of a foreland deep and rise formed by the flexure of the underthrusting plate beneath a terrestrial mountain range. We test the lithospheric flexure hypothesis and we estimate the effective thickness Te of the elastic lithosphere of the underthrusting portion of the North Polar Plains by fitting individual topographic profiles to deflection curves for a broken elastic plate. The theoretical curves fit the observed topographic profiles to within measurement error for values of flexural rigidity D in the range (0.8–3) × 1022 N m, equivalent to Te in the range 11–18 km. Under the assumption that the base of the mechanical lithosphere is limited by the creep strength of olivine, the mean lithospheric thermal gradient is 14–23 K/km. The portion of the North Polar Plains to the immediate north of Freyja Montes stands at a regional elevation very near the modal elevation for the planet, so the inferred elastic lithosphere thickness and thermal gradient may be at least approximately representative of a significant fraction of the Venus lithosphere. That the inferred thermal gradient is similar to the value expected for the global mean gradient on the basis of scaling from Earth provides support for the hypothesis that simple conduction dominates lithospheric heat transport on Venus relative to lithospheric recycling and volcanism. Copyright 1990 by the American Geophysical Union.