Lunar magmatism

Abstract

Over the past two decades, our understanding of the formation and geology of the Moon has greatly increased. In the minds of many scientists the Moon has evolved from a distant object of curiosity to a natural laboratory for planetary geology. Because of the lack of tectonic recycling and chemical weathering, fresh rocks more than 4.0 Ga old still exist on the Moon and these rocks yield invaluable information about the early history of the solar system that is unavailable on Earth. Furthermore, understanding the Moon’s formation and early evolution helps increase our knowledge of the Earth, because the two bodies appear to have formed close together in space and time.