The interior of the Moon

MAR 01, 1974

As a result of the Apollo program we know that the lunar crust is much older than we had suspected, but the interior temperature remains a puzzle, as does the problem of the Moon’s origin

DOI: 10.1063/1.3128493

Don L. Anderson

The Moon is one of the more obvious of our neighbors in space and is certainly the most accessible. In spite of intensive analysis and probing by virtually every conceivable chemical and physical technique, the maneuvering room for speculation on lunar origin has scarcely diminished as a result of the Apollo program. This is not primarily due to lack of information but to the unexpected and confusing nature of the newly acquired data, most of which is open to multiple interpretations.

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References

1. J. Wood, in Abstracts of the Fourth Lunar Science Conference (J. Chamberlain, C. Watkins, eds.), page 790 (1972).
2. W. Kaula, in Abstracts of the Fourth Lunar Science Conference (J. Chamberlain, C. Watkins, eds.), page 432 (1972).
3. N. Toksoz, Ann. Rev. Earth and Planet. Sci., 1974 (in press).
4. R. Kovach, in Abstracts of the Fourth Lunar Science Conference (J. Chamberlain, C. Watkins, eds.), page 444 (1972).
5. D. L. Anderson, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 18, 301 (1973).https://doi.org/EPSLA2

More about the authors

Don L. Anderson, Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Pasadena, California.