Surface Properties of the Moon

The surface of the Moon has two hemispheres with rather asymmetric
properties; as a consequence the nature of the Lunar surface that we can see
from the Earth is substantially different from the surface that is always hidden
from the Earth.

The Near Side

The face of the Moon turned toward
us is termed the near side (image at
right). It is divided into light areas
called the Lunar Highlands and
darker areas called Maria (literally,
"seas"; the singular is Mare). The
Maria are lower in altitude than the
Highlands, but there is no water on
the Moon so they are not literally
seas ( Recent evidence from the
Clementine spacecraft suggests that
there may be some water on the
Moon, contrary to previous
assumptions). The dark material filling the Maria is actually dark, solidified
lava from earlier periods of Lunar volcanism. Both the Maria and the Highlands
exhibit large craters that are the result of meteor impacts. There are many more
such impact craters in the Highlands.
NEAR SIDE :

SUPRAFATA APROPIATA – VIZIBILA – A LUNII

FAR SIDE :

SUPRAFATA DEPARTATA –INVIZIBILA – A LUNII

Here's a photo of the Far Side of the Moon Compare that to the Near Side:
Lunar north pole
Lunar south pole
The Far Side
The side of the Moon unseen from the Earth is called the far side. One of the
discoveries of the first Lunar orbiters is that the far side has a very different
appearance than the near side. In particular, there are almost no Maria on the
far side, as illustrated in the image shown to the left of a portion of the far side
surface. In this figure a number of meteor impact craters are visible.

Cratering Density
The amount of cratering is usually an indication of the age of a geological
surface: the more craters, the older the surface, because if the surface is young
there hasn't been time for many craters to form. Thus, the Earth has a relatively
young surface because it has few craters. This is because the Earth is geologically
active, with plate tectonics and erosion having obliterated most craters from an
earlier epoch. In contrast the surface of the Moon is much older, with much more
cratering. Further, different parts of the surface of the Moon exhibit different
amounts of cratering and therefore are of different ages: the maria are younger
than the highlands, because they have fewer craters.
The oldest surfaces in the Solar System are characterized by maximal cratering
density. This means that one cannot increase the density of craters because there
are so many craters that, on average, any new crater that is formed by a meteor
impact will obliterate a previous crater, leaving the total number unchanged.
Some regions of the moon exhibit near maximal cratering density, indicating that
they are very old

The Lunar Surface Material

The bulk density of the Moon is 3.4 g/cc, which is comparable to that of (volcanic)
basaltic lavas on the Earth (however, the bulk density of the Earth is 5.5 g/cc,
because of the dense iron/nickel core). The Moon is coverered with a gently rolling
layer of powdery soil with scattered rocks that is called the regolith; it is made
from debris blasted out of the Lunar craters by the meteor impacts that created
them. Each well-preserved Lunar crater is surrounded by a sheet of ejected
material called the ejecta blanket.
Geological Composition
One striking difference between the Lunar surface material and that of Earth
concerns the most common kinds of rocks. On the Earth, the most common rocks
are sedimentary, because of atmospheric and water erosion of the surface. On the
Moon there is no atmosphere to speak of and little or no water, and the most
common kind of rock is igneous ("fire-formed rocks"). Geologically, the Lunar
surface material has the following characteristics:

1. The Maria are mostly composed of dark basalts, which form from rapid
cooling of molten rock from massive lava flows.
2. The Highlands rocks are largely Anorthosite, which is a kind of igneous rock
that forms when lava cools more slowly than in the case of basalts. This
implies that the rocks of the Maria and Highlands cooled at different rates
from the molten state and so were formed under different conditions.
3. Breccias, which are fragments of different rocks compacted and welded
together by meteor impacts, are found in the Maria and the Highlands, but
are more common in the latter.
4. Lunar Soils contain glassy globules not commonly found on the Earth. These
are probably formed from the heat and pressure generated by meteor
impacts.
The Anorthosites that are common in the Lunar Highlands are not common on the
surface of the Earth (The Adirondack Mountains and the Canadian Shield are
exceptions). They form the ancient cores of continents on the Earth, but these have
largely been obliterated by overlying sedimentary deposits and by plate tectonic
activity.
Chemical Composition
The Lunar rocks may also be examined according to the chemicals that they
contain. Such analysis indicates:

1. They are rich in refractory elements, which are elements such as calcium
(Ca), Aluminum (Al), and Titanium (Ti) that form compounds having high
melting points.
2. They are poor in the light elements such as hydrogen (H).
3. There is high abundance of elements like Silicon (Si) and Oxygen (O).

The high concentration of rare metals like Titanium, and the availability of
abundant amounts of Silicon and Oxygen has led to serious proposals about mining
and manufacturing operations in the future for the Moon.
Age of Lunar Material
The abundances of radioactive elements in rock samples can be used to tell the age
of the rock in a process called Radioactive Dating. When such techniques are
applied to the Lunar rock samples, one finds the following:

1. Samples from Mare Imbrium and the Ocean of Storms brought back by
Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 are about 3.5 billion years old, which is comparable
to the oldest rocks found on the surface of the Earth.
2. The ejecta blanket from the Imbrium Basin (which was formed by a gigantic
meteor impact) was returned by Apollo 14 and found to be about 3.9 billion
years old.
3. Lunar Highlands rocks returned by Apollo 16 are about 4 billion years old.
The oldest Lunar rock found was located by Apollo 17 and appears to be
about 4.5 billion years old.

Thus, the oldest material from the surface of the Moon is almost as old as we
believe the Solar System to be. This is more than a billion years older than the
oldest Earth rocks that have been found. Thus, the material brought back from the
Moon by the Apollo missions gives us a window on the very early history of our
Solar System that would be difficult the find on the Earth, which is geologically
active and has consequently has obliterated its early geological history.

Ancient rift valleys

Ancient rift valleys – rectangular structure (visible – topography – GRAIL gravity
gradients) (October 1, 2014)
Moon – Evidence of young lunar volcanism (October 12, 2014)
Volcanic rilles near the crater Prinz
Volcanic domes within the Mons Rümker complex
Wrinkle ridges within the crater Letronne
Rima Ariadaeus is a graben. NASA photo taken during Apollo
10 mission.
Mare Imbrium and the crater Copernicus
The lunar crater King
Lunar pit ( Goapa ) in Mare Tranquillitatis
Olivine basalt collected by Apollo 15
Exploring Shorty Crater during the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. This was the only Apollo
mission to include a geologist (Harrison Schmitt). (NASA photo)
Relative concentration (in weight %) of various elements on lunar
highlands, lunar lowlands, and Earth
Relative concentration of various elements on the lunar surface (in
weight %)
The same image using different color filters