Definition/Description
The early thermal evolution of lunar interior deals with the thermal state of Moon during the initial few tens to hundreds of million years, starting from the events that led to its formation. The Moon was probably formed by a cataclysmic event, generally associated with a Giant Impact. This makes the lunar thermal evolution quite distinct from the terrestrial planets on account of several factors, viz., the existence of a deep initial magma ocean, the absence of short-lived radionuclide, 26Al, and the associated heating due to the late formation, the substantially low heating by gravitational differentiation due to the initial depletion of metallic-iron content, and the high tidal heating due to the trapping in evection resonance with the Sun at a smaller orbital distance. The lunar thermal evolution significantly influenced its physical and chemical structure and led to the formations of its small iron-core, the mantle, and the thick anorthositic crust.
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Acknowledgments
V.G. is supported by a fellowship of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India [award number 09/135(0787)/2017-EMR-I].
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Goyal, V., Sahijpal, S. (2022). Early Thermal Evolution of the Lunar Interiors. In: Cudnik, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lunar Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_228-1
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