CHOCOLATE TABLET ASPECTS OF TECTONICS OF MESHKENET-TESSERA ON VENUS

The intrablock deformation of Meshkenet Tessera on Venus is mostly due to responses of the uppermost surface bedrock to tensional stresses. It is found that complex deformation structures within the highland bl ocks resemble those of formed in chocolate tablet boudinaging which ha s taken place after original parallel faulting and bar-like crustal bl ock formation. The high-angle tessera structures with varying cross-cu tting relations define styles and locations of multiphase deformation most evidently related to local relaxation of tessera topography. Seri es of progressive or superposed fracturing events with alternating fau lt directions took place at high angles during this relaxational defor mation. Compressional ridges often surround these tesserae.