Mercury’s tectonic history has been dominated by global contraction as the planet shrinks and cools. Previously, fault dips have been indirectly estimated by measuring offsets to the rims of craters displaced by fault movement. Here we present the first observations of a fault surface exposed in three dimensions, in this case within a volcanic vent. We use shadow measurements to determine the depth of the vent and have measured the dip of the fault as 28° ±5. This is towards the shallower end of previous dip estimates used to estimate global contraction. If it is representative, it suggests global contraction at the higher end (5.7–7.1 ​km) of previously published estimates.

随着地球的收缩和冷却，水星的构造历史一直受到全球收缩的支配。以前，断层倾角是通过测量由断层运动位移的火山口边缘的偏移量间接估算出来的。在这里，我们介绍了在三维平面上暴露的断层表面的第一个观察结果，在这种情况下是在火山喷口内。我们使用阴影测量来确定通风孔的深度，并将断层的倾角测量为28°±5。这接近于先前用于估计全球收缩的低谷估计的较浅末端。如果有代表性，则表明全球收缩幅度在先前公布的估计值的高端（5.7-7.1 km）。