Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Geology Of The Moon, Meteoroid, Orbital Period
24 Mar 2016
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The older a surface, the more impacts it has experienced: typically strike planets at 10+ km/s. The study of these motions, large or small, is called seismology. Most of earth"s earthquakes originate with motions of the crustal plates, and are particularly associated with the interaction of plate margins. A great deal of the geological structure of earth has been revealed by studying the behaviour of seismic waves. The same principles of study apply to the moon: moon has a core that is hot and perhaps is still partially molten, but it is small - probably between 2% and 4% of the. This is tiny compared with earth, in which the iron core makes up about 30% of the planet"s mass. As the moon cooled, denser materials sank to form a small core, and low-density minerals oated" to the top to form a low-density crust; differentiation of core, mantle, crust.
