Wrinkle ridges are among the most common and controversial compressional tectonic structures on terrestrial planets and are very frequent on Mars. While their origins are well inferred to be related to crustal shortening driven by compressional stress, their subsurface characterization is still a matter of debate. Open questions remain about the geometry, number, structural style and kinematics of faults promoting wrinkle ridges. We use methods to construct balanced cross-sections of fold-and-thrust belts that are based on conservation of area and volume to assess the nature of deformation and to quantify the amount of shortening and the depth of detachment faulting. Recently we use the Trishear and Fault-Parallel-Flow integrated forward kinematic modelling to model wrinkle ridges related faults.
We specifically study the concentrically oriented wrinkle ridges of the Tharsis Dome on Mars. We found that wrinkle ridges are connected to detachments that are situated progressively deeper the closer the wrinkle ridges are located to the center of the Tharsis Dome. We apply the critical taper theory to understand the kinematics of the Dome. Our findings suggest that these detachments are either localized along salt or clay layers or occur where liquid water is dominant below an impermeable permafrost layer.