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Mercury Essay

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It is believed that only 55% of Mercury has been mapped, however, that 55% has yielded a number of interesting finds, there are three significant geological features on Mercury, these are: smooth plains, intercrater plains and rugged highlands. The smooth plains resemble Lunar Maria, that is, large dark basaltic plains formed by ancient volcanic eruption, found on the Earth’s moon. The Intercrater Plains are impact craters, pocked with a number of smaller craters, which cover 70% of the examined surface. These craters are particularly deep, due to the planets lack of an atmosphere to slow the bodies before impact. The rugged highlands resemble mountainous regions of the Earth; however, there is no evidence of tectonic motions to have caused them. Mercury is made up of predominately iron, its crust is only 500-600km thick and there is evidence of volcanic activity, although it is believed that the planet has been geologically dormant for billions of years. The atmosphere on Venus is composed of mostly Carbon dioxide with small amounts of nitrogen and sulphuric acid. This composition causes a runaway greenhouse gas effect that makes the planet even hotter than Mercury, despite the fact that Mercury is much closer to the sun. The air on Venus is incredibly dense due to the Nitrogen content, which, whilst admittedly is only a small part of the atmospheric composition, is at least four times the amount on Earth. This Atmospheric composition therefore creates a thick layer of

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