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The lunar mantle, with a thickness of roughly 1350 km, is far deeper than the crust, which has an average thickness of about 50 km. The lunar crust is thinner on the side of the Moon facing the Earth, and thicker on the side facing away.
- Moon: NASA Science
Moon Crustal Thickness. Global map of crustal thickness of...
- Moon: NASA Science
Jul 9, 2018 · Moon Crustal Thickness. Global map of crustal thickness of the moon derived from gravity data obtained by NASA's GRAIL spacecraft. The lunar near side is represented on the left hemisphere. The far side is represented in the right hemisphere. In the left hemisphere, outlined in white, is the Procellarum KREEP Terrane, a large province on the ...
Feb 11, 2016 · Basically, a new hypothesis proposes that, after the impact that created the moon, it got tidally locked to the Earth in only a few (~100) days. Because the Earth was still hot (2,500°C) from the residual heat of impact, it cooked the near side but let the far side cool more rapidly, thus forming a thicker crust than the near side.
The resulting debris from both Earth and the impactor accumulated to form our natural satellite 239,000 miles (384,000 kilometers) away. The newly formed Moon was in a molten state, but within about 100 million years, most of the global "magma ocean" had crystallized, with less-dense rocks floating upward and eventually forming the lunar crust.
The crust of the Moon is on average about 50 km thick (though this is uncertain by about ±15 km). It is estimated that the far-side crust is on average thicker than the near side by about 15 km. [34] Seismology has constrained the thickness of the crust only near the Apollo 12 and Apollo 14 landing sites.
Apr 25, 2024 · Unlike Earth, however, the crusts of these celestial bodies are not shaped by the interaction tectonic plates. Despite the Moon’s smaller size, lunar crust is thicker than crust on Earth. Lunar crust is not a uniform thickness and in general tends to be thicker on the “far side,” which always faces away from Earth.
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Aug 21, 2023 · Part of the moon's internal structure, the mantle lies beneath the crust and extends toward its core. Though not as well documented as Earth's mantle, the lunar mantle is likely composed of olivine and pyroxene (made up of oxygen atoms, iron, silicon and magnesium). At about 838 miles (1350 kilometers), the mantle is also much thicker than the ...
