The Caloris Montes ( Latin for "Heat's Mountains") are a range of mountains on

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

. They are a system of linear hills and valleys that extend more than 1000 km to the northeast from the mountainous rim of Caloris Basin in the

Shakespeare quadrangle The Shakespeare quadrangle is a region of Mercury running from 90 to 180° longitude and 20 to 70° latitude. It is also called Caduceata. The Borealis quadrangle is north of Shakespeare quadrangle. To the west is Raditladi quadrangle, and to t ...

(H-3).topo
/ref> The range consists of numerous rectilinear massifs 1 to 3 km high and about 10 to 50 km long, mostly elongated radially from the center of the basin and separated by hackly-floored, radial troughs and gouge-like structures. The surfaces of the massifs are hackly. They are best developed along the inner edge of the basin where steep inward-facing

scarp Scarp may refer to: Landforms and geology * Cliff, a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure * Escarpment, a steep slope or long rock that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevatio ...

s are common, grading outward into smaller massifs and blocks. The range marks the crest of most prominent ring structure around Caloris. The type area is the region near 18°, 184.5° (FDS 229). It is thought to be composed of uplifted prebasin bedrock covered by deep-seated late ejecta from Caloris. The inner boundary is approximately the outer limit of crater excavation.H-8 text_all.word
/ref> The Caloris Montes are similar to the so-called

Imbrium sculpture Mare Imbrium (Latin ''imbrium'', the "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains", "Sea of Tears") is a vast lava plain within the Imbrium Basin on the Moon and is one of the larger craters in the Solar System. The Imbrium Basin formed from the collis ...

on the Moon. It is generally believed that this type of lineated surface feature resulted from excavations by secondary projectiles when the large basins were formed and, possibly, fracturing and faulting of the planet's crust during the basin formation. The Caloris Montes are only the innermost formation of the

Caloris Group The Caloris group is a set of geologic units on Mercury. McCauley and othersMcCauley, J. F., Guest, J. E., Schaber, G. G., Trask, N. J., and Greeley, Ronald, 1980, Stratigraphy of the Caloris Basin, Mercury: Icarus, 1980 have proposed the name “C ...

of formations produced by the Caloris Basin impact. A gap is present in the Caloris Montes toward the southeast; its origin is unknown, but it is somewhat similar to the gap on the east side of the Imbrium Basin, where the mountain ring cuts the edge of the

Serenitatis Basin Mare Serenitatis (Latin ''serēnitātis'', the "Sea of Serenity") is a lunar mare located to the east of Mare Imbrium on the Moon. Its diameter is . Geology Mare Serenitatis is located within the Serenitatis basin, which is of the Nectarian epo ...

. On Mercury, however, there is no evidence for the presence of a preexisting basin east of Caloris.

References

{{Mercury (planet) Extraterrestrial mountains Surface features of Mercury