Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
Elements Don't get GSW? Talk to your librarian.
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Elements; February 2009; v. 5; no. 1; p. 11-16; DOI: 10.2113/gselements.5.1.11
© 2009 Mineralogical Society of America
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Delano, J. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

Scientific Exploration of the Moon

John W. Delano*

* Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
University at Albany (State University of New York)
Albany, NY 12222, USA
E-mail: jdelano{at}csc.albany.edu

The Moon is a geochemically differentiated object. It has a feldspathic crust (highlands regions) composed of three petrological suites. Underlying that crust is a compositionally heterogeneous upper mantle from which ferrobasalts and picrites (mare regions) were generated. Lunar samples retain a memory of the time-dependent flux of meteorites and comets, which has implications for the origin of sustainable life on Earth and the orbital evolution of the outer planets. Permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles may contain reservoirs of volatile ices, which would have important resource potential for scientific bases. Geophysical data show that the Moon has a thick, seismically active lithosphere, a partially molten zone beneath that lithosphere, and a small metallic core. The pace of scientific exploration has quickened since 2003 with the successes of spacecraft from Europe, Japan, the People's Republic of China, and India. Upcoming launches of spacecraft from these same nations and the United States herald a new era of lunar discoveries.

KEYWORDS: maria, highlands, terminal cataclysm, volatiles, volcanism, magma ocean




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ELEMENTSHome page
M. D. Norman
The Lunar Cataclysm: Reality or "Mythconception"?
Elements, February 1, 2009; 5(1): 23 - 28.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Mineralogical Society of America