Computer Science
Scientific paper
Mar 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996lpi....27.1245s&link_type=abstract
Lunar and Planetary Science, volume 27, page 1245
Computer Science
1
Chemistry: Lunar Surface, Crust: Lunar, Gravity: Lunar, Isostasy: Lunar, Topography: Lunar
Scientific paper
The nature of isostatic support of topography in the lunar highlands provides important clues to the processes of crustal formation and early crustal evolution. The chemistry of a crust formed by crystallization in a lunar magma ocean could be either heterogeneous or nearly homogeneous in density, depending on the horizontal length scales for convection in the cooling magma ocean and the mixing processes (e.g., impact mixing, remelting, serial magmatism) during crustal cooling. In a crust that is compositionally homogeneous on lateral scales of tens of kilometers and greater, elevation differences would be supported by an Airy compensation mechanism (i.e., variations in crustal thickness), whereas lateral variations in crustal composition and therefore crustal density at such length scales would contribute to isostatic support of elevation differences through a Pratt mechanism. Even if the earliest lunar crust varied only radially in density, lateral variations might now be present if a layered crust has been differentially excavated by large impacts or if the earliest crust was variously intruded by later mantle-derived magmas. The total volume of the lunar crust, a quantity of importance for constraining models of largescale differentiation and bulk composition, is sensitive to the assumed mechanism of highland isostasy.
Simons Mark
Solomon Stanley C.
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