Figure 3. CTX mosaic (enlarged part of Figure 2) showing
examples of E-W trending strike-slip fault morphologies within mNp,
including releasing and restraining stepovers and bends. Small
restraining stepover features may constitute either the positive flower
structures or the push-up ridges summarized in Cunningham and Mann
[2007]. The larger mound in the central part of the figure
demonstrates a possible sinistral offset of approximately 1.6 km. North
at top.
On Earth, the identification of topographic features at bends or steps
along the structures suggest a component of lateral slip. In Bathys
Planum, topographic depressions can be identified at left bends or steps
in the faults, and positive topographic features (small hills) present
at right bends and steps (typical dimensions 100-200 m width, 100 m-2 km
length). This morphology mimics topographic features along terrestrial
strike-slip faults [e.g., Sylvester, 1988; Christie-Blick and Biddle,
1985; Cunningham and Mann, 2007] and suggests that these structures
exhibit a component of left-lateral strike slip. This sense of slip is
also supported by the apparent left-lateral offset of the larger hill in
the central part of the area (Figure 3). Towards the peripheries of the
region of interest, the structures occasionally manifest as
compressional faults with vertical offsets reaching 130 m (Golombek et
al., [2001]; Watters, [1998]).