Findings from a recently published paper led by Smithsonian senior scientist Thomas R. Watters reveal evidence that flow in the mantle of Mercury may have thickened its crust and formed long clusters of mountainous fault scarps. The paper “Mercury’s Crustal Thickness and Contractional Strain,” published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, presents new models of the thickness of Mercury’s crust. Clusters of fault scarps, some extending over thousands of kilometers, are found in areas of thick crust, suggesting a connection on Mercury between mantle flow and tectonics like that found on Earth.