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Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock

By Guest PostMarch 25, 2013Scienceanalysis of data, apollo moon rocks, apollo program, brown university, crust, differentiation, differentiation processes, fluid rock, geological sciences, james w head, laser altimeter, liquid rock, lola, luna missions, lunar crust, lunar magma ocean, lunar orbiter, magma ocean paradigm, mantle, maunder crater, melt sea, model, molten rock, moon, NASA, orientale basin, orientale melt, planetary geologist, pristine rocks, remote sensing data, rock forming processes, rock layers, russia, william vaughan

A new analysis of data from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) shows that molten rock may have been present on the Moon more recently and for longer periods than previously thought. Differentiation — a settling out of rock layers as liquid rock cools — would require thousands of years and a fluid rock sea at least six miles deep.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Early in the Moon’s history an ocean of molten rock covered its entire surface. As that lunar magma ocean cooled over millions of years, it differentiated to form the Moon’s crust and mantle. But according to a new analysis by planetary scientists from Brown University, this wasn’t the last time the Moon’s surface was melted on a massive scale. (more…)

UCLA Scientist Discovers Plate Tectonics on Mars

For years, many scientists had thought that plate tectonics existed nowhere in our solar system but on Earth. Now, a UCLA scientist has discovered that the geological phenomenon, which involves the movement of huge crustal plates beneath a planet’s surface, also exists on Mars.

“Mars is at a primitive stage of plate tectonics. It gives us a glimpse of how the early Earth may have looked and may help us understand how plate tectonics began on Earth,” said An Yin, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences and the sole author of the new research. (more…)

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Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock

UCLA Scientist Discovers Plate Tectonics on Mars