Lunar Megaregolith Structure Revealed by GRAIL Gravity Data
Name
Geophysical Research Letters - 2021 - Izquierdo - Lunar Megaregolith Structure Revealed by GRAIL Gravity Data.pdf
Description
Published version
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4.11 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Izquierdo, Kristel
Sori, Michael M
Soderblom, Jason M
Johnson, Brandon C
Wiggins, Sean E
Date Issued
November 10, 2021
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Citation
Izquierdo, K., Sori, M. M., Soderblom, J. M., Johnson, B. C., & Wiggins, S. E. (2021). Lunar megaregolith structure revealed by GRAIL gravity data. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL095978.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We use gravity data from NASA's GRAIL mission to characterize the porosity structure of the upper lunar crust. We analyze the gravitational anomalies produced by the porosity of craters with diameters D between 10 and 30 km. We find that the gravitational signature of craters changes significantly at urn:x-wiley:00948276:media:grl63321:grl63321-math-0001 km, which is related to a discrete change in porosity at a depth ∼3–5 km. We propose that this discrete porosity change reveals the location of the boundary between large-scale basin ejecta and the deeper less porous portion of the megaregolith, known as the structurally disturbed crust. The ejecta thickness can help constrain models of material transport and mixing on the Moon and, because the ejecta layer acts as an insulating blanket, models of heat flow and magmatism.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095978
