Insights into Lunar Far-side Highlands Crustal Development from the Moscoviense Basin and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper onboard Chandrayaan-1

Details Insights into Lunar Far-side Highlands Crustal Development from the Moscoviense Basin and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper onboard Chandrayaan-1 Insights into Lunar Far-side Highlands Crustal Development from the Moscoviense Basin and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper onboard Chandrayaan-1

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p23b1252t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P23B-1252

Mathematics

Logic

[5464] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Remote Sensing, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a reflectance spectrometer on India’s Chandrayaan-1, has enabled the detailed mineralogical and geological mapping of the Moon. Much of the highlands terrain on the Moon’s nearside has been drastically modified by the 3.8-4.09 Ga heavy bolide bombardment and subsequent volcanism. However, remote sensing observations, in combination with studies of Apollo and Luna samples, have provided invaluable insights into the complex nature of nearside lunar crustal material. When compared to the significant basin forming episodes, which literally changed the face of the nearside of the Moon, the northern hemisphere of the lunar farside consists of relatively undisturbed highlands, albeit with a few impact basins that may present cross-sections of the pristine products of the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) and early crustal magmatism. The Moscoviense basin is one of these farside, multi-ring impact basins. It resulted from a major impact during the Nectarian Period (3.85-3.92 Ga), and experienced subsequent mare volcanism during the Upper Imbrian Epoch (3.2-3.8 Ga) and possibly even as recent as 1.1-3.2 Ga. It is approximately 445 km across, and its floor is >5 km below the surrounding rim. The inner peak-ring is represented by a half ring of approximately 105 km radius, stands 2-3 km above the basin floor, and is open to the northeast. The middle ring, which is the best approximation of the original crater rim, has a radius of about 220 km and is nearly continuous around the basin. A fault scarp, which formed during the late stages of basin formation as the crust collapsed into the crater, can be identified approximately 275 km west of the center of the basin. The surrounding rim is higher to the west and south with corresponding steeper slopes into the basin than to the north and east, which contain lower rims, gentler slopes, and distinct slump blocks. Much of the floor of the basin has been filled by mare basalts of varying compositions and occupies a roughly rectangular depression which trends southwest to northeast. The geologic setting of the Moscoviense basin provides a cross-section through what may be a relatively undisturbed crust formed by the LMO, with subsequent serial magmatism, and windows into the lunar mantle in the form of the several types of mare basalts.

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