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Description
Planetary bodies in the inner Solar System are also called terrestrial planetary bodies and include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and the Moon. When heated rock melts at a depth of several kilometers below the surface of these planetary bodies, magma is produced. This magma then rises and is emplaced at shallow depth in the planetary crust, or it erupts at the surface. During shallow emplacement, magma creates space for itself and it deforms the surrounding rocks. As a result, the planetary surface is deformed as well. Both linear and dome-shaped surface features have been found at the surface of terrestrial planetary bodies. Dome-shaped features include a series of impact craters on the Moon that possess uplifted and fractured crater floors. Numerical models can be used instead to estimate magma intrusion geometry, orientation, depth and volume. Most existing numerical models of magma emplacement assume that the host rock behaves elastically. Geological observations on Earth have shown, however, that the rock properties and fractures cause that rock to behave non-elastically as well. This project will use an innovative approach to numerically model the emplacement of magma in fractured rocks using a two-dimensional Discrete Element Method (DEM). Host rock samples will be collected around solidified and exposed magma intrusions in South-West Poland. Fracture networks in the host rocks will be mapped digitally using state-of-the-art photogrammetry techniques. The model results will be compared to the topography and fracture networks mapped on the Moon by using satellite images. The proposed multidisciplinary approach will allow to produce new complex models of how shallow magma emplacement deforms planetary crust. This way, this project will improve the interpretation of surface features on terrestrial planetary bodies caused by magma, as well as improve models of magma intrusion used to reduce volcanic hazards on Earth.