第三节 月球的组成课件.ppt

地球化学;;;;;;;;;;Ages of lunar rocks The oldest rocks are anorthosites in the lunar highlands (ancient crust, 4.3-4.4 billion years old). Impact breccias are mostly from the giant maria-excavating impacts (3.9-4.3 billion years old). Mare basalt that covers the maria floors was formed by melting of the lunar mantle. These basalts gradually filled the maria as a series of lava flows (3.1-3.9 billion years old). Volcanic glass is scattered throughout the lunar regolith, although few volcanoes have been positively identified. This glass (1.3-3.5 billion years old) largely post-dates the mare basalts. Since 1.3 billion years ago there is no evidence of any geologic processes except meteorite impacts and some mass wasting processes such as landslides. ;;;;;;;;;;;;; Dust of the early solar nebula. A great many pebbles. Zillions of boulders. Trillions of asteroids. Four inner planets. ;Introduction to lunar geology The basic geology of the Moon have been worked out from telescope and satellite images of the lunar surface, samples returned by the U.S. Apollo and Soviet Luna missions, from seismic sensors left by Apollo missions, and from measurements of the physical characteristics of the moon such as gravity. The following summarizes the conclusions. The Moons density, measured chemistry, and seismic structure is compatible with a lunar mineralogy of mostly pyroxene, olivine, and iron-titanium oxides, with little or no iron core. ;The overall chemistry of the Moon is much like the Earths mantle, but the Moon has much less of chemical components that are volatile at modest temperatures, including H2O, CO2, and elements with low boiling points such as sodium, lead, and arsenic. ;crystals as they crystallized during cooling of a global magma ocean. The crust has been heavily churned up by numerous large meteorite impacts early in the Moons history. ;After the crust had formed and the magma ocean solidified, several huge meteorite impacts excavated large