Abstract
The Apollo 15 mission provided reliable data on the depths of maria Serenitatis and Smythii. Using the present depth values and the excess masses of the associated mascons of these maria together with the ages of their final fillings the average viscosity of the upper part of the lunar interior is determined for the mare formation period (from 3.8 to 3.3 b.y. ago) and the period after mare formation (since 3.3 b.y. ago). It is found that the lower limit of the average viscosity within the first period is about 1025 poise and within the second period is about 8 × 1026 poise.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Arkani-Hamed, J.: 1972a,The Moon,6 100–111.
Arkani-Hamed, J.: 1972b,The Moon,6 135–163.
Baldwin, R. B.: 1970,Icarus 13, 215–225.
Baldwin, R. B.: 1971,Icarus 14, 36–52.
Hartmann, W. K. and Wood, C. A.: 1971,The Moon 3, 3–78.
‘Lunatic asylum’: 1970,Science 167, 463–466.
Neukum, G., Schneider, E., Mehl, A., Storzer, D., Wagner, G. A., Fechtig, H., and Bloch, M. R.: 1972, ‘Lunar Craters and Exposure Ages Derived from Crater Statistics and Solar Flare Tracks’,Proceedings of the Third Lunar Science Conference.
Michael, W. H., Jr., Blackshear, W. T., and Gapcynski, J. P.: 1969, ‘Results of the Mass and the Gravitational Field of the Moon as Determined from Dynamics of Lunar Satellites’, presented at the 12th Plenary Meeting of COSPAR, Prague.
Papanastassiou, D. A. and Wasserburg, G. J.: 1970,Earth Planet. Sci. Letters 8, 269–278.
Sjogren, W. L., Muller, P. M., and Wollenhaupt, W. R.: 1972, ‘Apollo 15 Gravity Analysis from theS-Band Transponder Exp.’,The Moon 4, 411–418.
Turcotte, D. L. and Oxburgh, E. R.: 1969,Nature 223, 250–251.
Wollenhaupt, W. R. and Sjogren, W. L.: 1972, ‘Comments of the Figure of the Moon Based on Preliminary Results from Laser Altimetry’,The Moon 4, 337–347.
Wollenhaupt, W. R.: 1972,Results from Apollo 16 Laser Altimetry, personal communication.
Wong, L., Buechler, G., Downs, W., Sjogren, W., Muller, P., and Gottlieb, P.: 1971,J. Geophys. Res. 76, 6220–6236.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The research in this paper was done while the author was a Visiting Scientist at the Lunar Science Institute, which is operated by the Universities Space Research Association under Contract No. NSR 09-051-011 with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Arkani-Hamed, J. Viscosity of the moon. The Moon 6, 112–124 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02630656
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02630656