Structural analysis of the Victoria quadrangle (H2) of Mercury based on NASA MESSENGER data

Objective of this thesis is the mapping and structural analysis of the H2 quadrangle, "Victoria", and a reconnaissance study of the geometry and kinematics of lobate scarps on Mercury. To this end, I produced a 1:3,000,000 geologic map of the area using the images provided by the NASA spacecraft MESSENGER, which has been orbiting the planet since March 2011. The structural analysis was supplemented by an innovative method to calculate fault slip data using craters cross-cut by lobate scarps. This method permits to fully constrain remotely-sensed fault kinematics, and it was applied on 16 craters found across 30% of Mercury covered by stereo-DTM data. Inversion of fault slip data gathered within the quadrangle thus allowed the estimation of the orientation of the stress field pertaining to the mapped lobate scarp systems.