Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon
Abstract First recognized by Laplace over two centuries ago, the Moon's present tidal‐rotational bulges are significantly larger than hydrostatic predictions. They are likely relics of a former hydrostatic state when the Moon was closer to the Earth and had larger bulges, and they were establis...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2018-02-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076278 |
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| author | Chuan Qin Shijie Zhong Roger Phillips |
| author_facet | Chuan Qin Shijie Zhong Roger Phillips |
| author_sort | Chuan Qin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract First recognized by Laplace over two centuries ago, the Moon's present tidal‐rotational bulges are significantly larger than hydrostatic predictions. They are likely relics of a former hydrostatic state when the Moon was closer to the Earth and had larger bulges, and they were established when stresses in a thickening lunar lithosphere could maintain the bulges against hydrostatic adjustment. We formulate the first dynamically self‐consistent model of this process and show that bulge formation is controlled by the relative timing of lithosphere thickening and lunar orbit recession. Viable solutions indicate that lunar bulge formation was a geologically slow process lasting several hundred million years, that the process was complete about 4 Ga when the Moon‐Earth distance was less than ~32 Earth radii, and that the Earth in Hadean was significantly less dissipative to lunar tides than during the last 4 Gyr, possibly implying a frozen hydrosphere due to the fainter young Sun. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3e2fe601b5ef4b2db166846f3961ef29 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-02-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-3e2fe601b5ef4b2db166846f3961ef292025-08-20T01:51:44ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072018-02-014531286129610.1002/2017GL076278Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and MoonChuan Qin0Shijie Zhong1Roger Phillips2Department of Physics University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USADepartment of Physics University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USADepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences Washington University St. Louis MO USAAbstract First recognized by Laplace over two centuries ago, the Moon's present tidal‐rotational bulges are significantly larger than hydrostatic predictions. They are likely relics of a former hydrostatic state when the Moon was closer to the Earth and had larger bulges, and they were established when stresses in a thickening lunar lithosphere could maintain the bulges against hydrostatic adjustment. We formulate the first dynamically self‐consistent model of this process and show that bulge formation is controlled by the relative timing of lithosphere thickening and lunar orbit recession. Viable solutions indicate that lunar bulge formation was a geologically slow process lasting several hundred million years, that the process was complete about 4 Ga when the Moon‐Earth distance was less than ~32 Earth radii, and that the Earth in Hadean was significantly less dissipative to lunar tides than during the last 4 Gyr, possibly implying a frozen hydrosphere due to the fainter young Sun.https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076278Moon's shapegravity anomaliesEarth's tidal Qearly Earth |
| spellingShingle | Chuan Qin Shijie Zhong Roger Phillips Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon Geophysical Research Letters Moon's shape gravity anomalies Earth's tidal Q early Earth |
| title | Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon |
| title_full | Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon |
| title_fullStr | Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon |
| title_short | Formation of the Lunar Fossil Bulges and Its Implication for the Early Earth and Moon |
| title_sort | formation of the lunar fossil bulges and its implication for the early earth and moon |
| topic | Moon's shape gravity anomalies Earth's tidal Q early Earth |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076278 |
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