Computer Science
Scientific paper
Jul 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992metic..27s.267n&link_type=abstract
Meteoritics, vol. 27, no. 3, volume 27, page 267
Computer Science
Scientific paper
The most striking lunar asymmetries--the restriction of basalt-filled maria to the Earth-facing hemisphere and the lunar center of mass displacement--have been explained either by a greater thickness of farside anorthositic crust (1-3) or by an asymmetric crystallization of a primordial magma ocean (4,5). In a very substantiated model, using the information provided by orbital geochemistry and laser altimetry, Haines and Metzger showed that the observed displacement of the Moon's center of mass from its center of figure has its most supportable explanation in the longitudinal variations of the crustal density and thickness and the lunar isostasy is a well-balanced mean between Pratt and Airy isostatic compensations. In this paper it is demonstrated that the lunar asymmetries are the results of the longitudinal variations of the crustal thickness and that a substantial component of isostatic compensation of the lunar topography takes place in the upper mantle. Further, the phenomenon that produced that gross lunar asymmetry and isolated the time of its occurrence was determined. Finally an outline of the lunar history is presented. References 1. Kaula, W.M. et al. Proc. 3rd Lunar Sci. Conf., 2189 (1972). 2. Kaula, W.M. et al. Proc. 5th Lunar Sci. Conf., 3049 (1974). 3. Haines, E.L. & Metzger, A.T. Proc. 11th Lunar Planet. Sci. Conf., 689, (1980). 4. Wasson, J.T. & Warren P.H. Lunar Planet. Sci. 11, Abstr.,1220 (1980). 5. Stevenson, D.J., Nature 237, 520 (1980).
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