Lunar structure and seismicity at the Apollo 17 landing site
Abstract
Reexamination of the seismograms of the Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment on the Apollo 17 lunar mission has yielded a revised shallow velocity structure for the lunar crust. The seismograms were processed in two ways: (1) by prediction error filtering to remove noise of known spectral characteristics, and (2) by subtracting a model of the noise waveform from the data. The more accurate travel-times resulted in the following P-velocity model: 100 m/sec (4 m thick), 327 m/sec (28 m thick), 495 m/sec (358 m thick), 960 m/sec (995 m thick), and 4,700 m/sec (undetermined thickness). The corresponding geologic model is: 4 m of lunar regolith, on top of 28 m of rubble, overlying about 1,300 m of basalt which has been extensively fractured near the top. The high velocity basement is probably coherent anorthositic breccia. The rapid increase in velocity with depth precludes the possibility that the upper few kilometers of the moon consist of cold-compacted powders.
- Publication:
-
Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- 1975
- Bibcode:
- 1975PhDT.........8C
- Keywords:
-
- Apollo 17 Flight;
- Lunar Exploration;
- Lunar Landing;
- Lunar Seismographs;
- Seismology;
- Lunar Crust;
- Lunar Geology;
- Lunar Surface;
- Moonquakes;
- Velocity Distribution;
- Lunar and Planetary Exploration