| Feature on | Mercury | | Feature type | Montes (mountain range) | | Quadrangle | H-4 Raditladi (extending into H-3 Shakespeare and H-8 Tolstoj) | | Mercurian coordinates | 31° N, 174° W | | Dimensions | Length 1,023 km | | Bounding features | The range runs between Caloris Planitia and Odin Planitia |
The mountains that ring the Caloris Basin were raised when an immense object crashed into Mercury early in the history of the Solar System. The result was a vast flat plain of lava some 1,500 km in diameter - the Caloris Planitia, ringed by concentric rings of ridges. The highest of these are a range of mountains encircling the basin, known as the Caloris Montes, which can reach heights of up to 2km above the plain below.
The range of the Caloris Montes does not form a continuous ring, but consists of broken sections of mountainous landscape surrounding the central Caloris Basin. The most significant break in the range is a significant gap in the mountains in their southeastern quadrant, the origins of which are not currently well understood.
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