Kyle Rodney
Stockton University
Introduction
This presentation focuses on the formation of Moon. As well as how the
Moon’s geologic make-up differs from that of Earths. The purpose is to
look at how the Moon’s unique environment has affected the rocks on the
Moon and compare them to similar rocks we may find on Earth. This
information gives us insight on other rocky planets and moon’s
compositions.
Background
The Moon is the Earth’s only satellite body. The widely accepted theory for
the Moon’s origin is that roughly 4.5 billion years ago the Earth was struck
by a planetoid roughly the size of Mars. The debris from the collision was
caught in the Earth’s gravitational field and coalesced into the Moon. The
surface of the Moon has two planes: The lunar highlands which make up
the lighter parts of the Moon, and the maria which make up the darker
portions of the Moon. The Moon’s environment is greatly different than
that of Earth’s. When compared to the Earth, the Moon has a much weaker
atmosphere, low gravitational effects, and much less water. All of these
have had some effect on the Moon’s geology.
Model of Moon’s Formation (ZmeScience, 2014)
Photo of Lunar Highlands (OpenStax, 2012)
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Moon Formation
• After the Earth was struck by the planetoid a large amount of material
from both bodies were vaporized
• The vapor would be caught by the Earth’s gravitational pull and
coalesced into a ball of magma
• During this stage where the Moon was almost fully molten it is referred
to as the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO)
• The LMO produced dense mafic material that sank to the base of the
LMO and less-dense plagioclase rich material which floated to the top
• The plagioclase rich material cooled and become silicate rich rocks
called anorthosites
• The anorthosites became the crust of the moon and cover 83% of the
moons surface
• The second most common rock on the moon is basalt which was created
when asteroids and other foreign bodies collided with the moon
• The craters left behind sometimes are partially filled with lava flows
which cool to form basalt
• Other rocks you may find on the moon are breccias formed from
meteorite impact
Lunar Timeline (Elkins-Tanton et al., 2011)
Internal Structure of the Moon
• Originally it was theorized that the Moon was a geologically dead body,
this is far from the truth
• Due to its formation the Moon has a core, mantle and crust like that of
Earth
• The Moon does not have broken up plates and does not experience plate
tectonics like Earth does
• The Moon does experience some seismic activity, namely moonquakes
• The reason for moonquakes can vary and include warming of frozen
crust by the sun, magma tides in the mantle, “raisining” or shrinking of
crust due to cooling, and meteorite strikes
• Moonquakes are generally weak but can go up to a 5.5 ranking
• The exact metrics of the Moon’s internal is still being argued about
• It is theorized that the Moon has a mostly Fe core like that of Earth
• Seismic Velocities of Lunar and Terrestrial rock and Select Cheeses (Ringwood, 1979)
• Model of Moon’s Interior (Garcia et al., 2019)
Lunar Core Size Estimates (Garcia et al., 2019)
Photo of Maria (OpenStax, 2012)
Moon Rocks compared to Earth Rocks
• As mentioned before the material that makes up the Moon was
originally vaporized during the collision with the Earth and the planetoid
• Due to this vaporization the Moon is depleted in water and other
volatiles when compared with the Earth
• Due to degassing during the LMO more volatile elements sunk into the
mafic magma material than the plagioclase rich material
• This means that the anorthosites have low amounts of element like Rb,
Ba, U, and Zn when compared to Earth
• The basalt that forms the maria have higher concentrations of volatiles
than the anorthosites
• The basalt on the Moon differs from that of Earths, Moon basalt have
higher levels of Fe and certain basalt samples taken have high amounts
of Ti
• Rocks on the Moon have nearly identical bulk densities to their earthly
counterparts
• Moon rocks were found to have high porosity when compared to their
Earthly counterparts
Density and Porosity taken from Apollo samples (Kiefer et al., 2012)
• Due to the depletion in water and the higher porosity Moon rocks have a
much lower seismic velocity when compared to their Earth counterparts
• Fun fact: A popular old wives' tale is that the moon is made of cheese.
Though not true there may be a kernel of truth to this myth
• Since the seismic velocities of Moon rocks are closer to some cheeses
then they are to Earth rocks
Discussion
The evidence I compiled showed that you most of the rocks you can find
on the Moon are the same kinds of rocks you can find on Earth. This is not
surprising since a large amount of the Moon’s material would have come
from the Earth if the prevailing theory is correct. Despite this the Moon’s
rocks differ from there Earth counterparts in several ways. Based on the
data and evidence this is most likely due to the unique circumstances of the
Moon’s formation, along with differences in the Moon’s atmosphere
reducing the sources of weathering on the rocks, the depletion of water and
volatiles causing some changes in the rock's makeups, and the lessened
effects of gravity increasing porosity and decreasing seismic velocity.
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