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Lunar Magnetic Anomalies

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Encyclopedia of Lunar Science

Lunar magnetic anomalies are locally strong magnetic fields near the Moon caused by permanently magnetized material in its upper crust. They have scale sizes of up to hundreds of kilometers and were first detected by magnetometers on the Apollo 15 and 16 subsatellites in 1971 and 1972 (Coleman et al. 1972; Russell et al. 1975). Some of these anomalies probably have surface fields as strong as several thousand nanoTeslas (nT), but fields at orbital altitudes are typically no more than 5 or 10 nT. For comparison, the Earth’s surface field ranges from 25,000 to 65,000 nT (25 to 65 μT). Major applications of lunar magnetic anomalies include investigating: (a) the existence and origin of a former lunar internal magnetizing field; (b) the geologic origin of magnetic anomaly sources; and (c) the role of the solar wind ion bombardment in producing space weathering or optical maturation (darkening with time) of airless silicate bodies in the solar system. Most recently, lunar magnetic...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lunar and Planetary Laboratory University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Lon L. Hood

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  1. Lon L. Hood
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Correspondence to Lon L. Hood .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Prairie View A&M University, Houston, TX, USA

    Brian Cudnik

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Physics, Albion College, Albion, MI, USA

    Nicolle E. B. Zellner Ph.D

  2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

    Caitlin Ahrens PhD

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Hood, L.L. (2021). Lunar Magnetic Anomalies. In: Cudnik, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lunar Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_4-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_4-3

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05546-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Lunar Magnetic Anomalies
    Published:
    24 November 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_4-3

  2. Lunar Magnetic Anomalies
    Published:
    16 March 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_4-2

  3. Original

    Lunar Magnetic Anomalies
    Published:
    19 November 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_4-1

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