Lithospheric and thermal structure of the Moon from gravity and topography

Details Lithospheric and thermal structure of the Moon from gravity and topography Lithospheric and thermal structure of the Moon from gravity and topography

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p23d1738a&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P23D-1738

Physics

[5417] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Gravitational Fields, [5418] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Heat Flow, [5475] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Tectonics, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

We characterize lithospheric structure of the Moon from an inversion of gravity and topography data, and infer global heat flow distribution based on estimated effective elastic thickness (Te). Lithospheric parameters are estimated by comparing observed complex admittance and correlation spectra between gravity and topography calculated with a spherical wavelet transform with those calculated from analytical models for the loading of a thin spherical elastic shell. The loading model takes into account the subsurface to surface load ratio (f) and the phase difference between initial loads (α). The Monte Carlo inversion is carried out using the neighborhood algorithm and model appraisal from Bayesian integrals to produce formal estimation errors, and robustness is tested against synthetic data. We carry out several independent inversions with different a priori constraints on crustal structure and show that results are weakly sensitive to those parameters. Results for the Moon show farside highland lithosphere characterized by large crustal and elastic thickness values (> 60 km), with surface-dominated loading and highly correlated initial loads. In contrast, nearside lowland lithosphere exhibits lower values of crustal and elastic thickness (< 50 km), bottom-dominated loading and randomly correlated initial loads. Te variations are converted to surface heat flow (qs) using yield strength envelopes, and results are compared with surface heat production (A0) from orbital measurements of radiogenic element concentrations. We find that heat flow (qs > 50 mW m-2) and heat generation (A0 > 2 μW m-3) are highest in the region corresponding to the Procellarum KREEP Terrane, and lowest in Feldspathic Highland Terrane (qs ˜ 10 mW m-2 and A0 < 0.5 μW m-3). We loosely constrain mantle heat flow within a range of > 7 mW m-2 to < 15 mW m-2 corresponding to farside and nearside lithosphere, respectively, and discuss implications for the thermal evolution of the Moon.

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