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Contraction Crack

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Cracks, which occur when stresses build up in a material due to contraction either due to thermal cooling (as in thermal contraction polygons and columnar basalt) or loss of material, particularly volatiles (as in desiccation).

Synonyms

Tensile cracks

A type of fracture, a type of tension crack

Subtypes

  1. (1)

    In basalt, Columnar joints; patterned ground (Venus), lava polygon (small), lava polygon (large)

  2. (2)

    In permafrost, Thermal-contraction crack polygons (permafrost) (Fig. 1)

  3. (3)

    In mud, Desiccation crack polygon

Fig. 1
figure 1

Polar polygonal patterned ground on Mars and frost-covered dunes at 70.0°N, 352.0°E. HiRISE PSP_008165_2505 (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

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References

  • Anderson TL (2005) Fracture mechanics: fundamentals and applications, 3rd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton

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  • El Maarry MR, Markiewicz WJ, Mellon MT, Goetz W, Dohm JM, Pack A (2010) Crater floor polygons: desiccation patterns of ancient lakes on Mars? J Geophys Res 115:E10006. doi:10.1029/2010JE003609

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  • Lachenbruch AH (1961) Depth and spacing of tension cracks. J Geophys Res 66(12):4273–4292

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  • Lachenbruch AH (1962) Mechanics of thermal contraction cracks and ice-wedge polygons in permafrost. Spec Pap Geol Soc Am 70:69

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  • Mellon MT (1997) Small-scale polygonal features on Mars: seasonal thermal contraction cracks in permafrost. J Geophys Res 102(E11):25617–25628

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Research and Planetary Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Mohamed Ramy El Maarry

Authors
  1. Mohamed Ramy El Maarry
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Correspondence to Mohamed Ramy El Maarry .

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El Maarry, M.R. (2014). Contraction Crack. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_102-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_102-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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