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Planetary science

Shrinking wrinkling Mercury

As Mercury's interior cools and its massive iron core freezes, its surface feels the squeeze. A comprehensive global census of compressional deformation features indicates that Mercury has shrunk by at least 5 km in radius over the past 4 billion years.

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Figure 1: Mercury's surface contraction.

©NASA/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV APPLIED PHYSICS LAB/CARNEGIE INST WASHINGTON

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Correspondence to William B. McKinnon.

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McKinnon, W. Shrinking wrinkling Mercury. Nature Geosci 7, 251–252 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2123

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