Abstract
THE concept of a “cooled crust” is useful in studies of the thermal history of a planetary surface originating from a differentiated liquid layer of considerable thickness. The cooled crust is defined as the solid outer layer of a planetary surface increasing in temperature with depth, the lower boundary of which, at a depth Z0, is at a temperature T0 corresponding to the zero-pressure melting point of the planetary material. The physical state of the material below the boundary Z0 will depend on the thermal gradient dT/dZ and the elevation of the melting point with increasing depth due to lithostatic pressure which we indicate by dM/dZ. I assume material of basaltic composition under lunar conditions1.
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BEALS, C. Lava Filled Craters and the Thermal History of the Lunar Surface. Nature 237, 226–227 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/237226a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/237226a0
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