The highlands are largely made of low-density rocks rich in aluminum. The highlands are much older than the maria and are much more heavily maria.
Is the maria or highlands older?
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.
Which surface is older the highlands or the maria and how can you tell from this photo?
If we look at the highlands, we see that they are covered with lots and lots of craters. This tells us that in general, the highlands are older than the maria, which have fewer craters. We also know that if we see a crater on top of a mare, the mare is older.
What is the difference between maria and highlands?
Maria vs. Highlands
The side facing the earth consists of dark (basaltic) lava filled basins called mare (maria) or seas. The lighter areas are heavily impacted terrain called the highlands.
How old are the highlands on the Moon?
It also established that the intense cratering of the highlands occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago. Most highland samples have ages in the range 3.8–4.3 billion years.
Are highlands or lowlands older?
Discussion: These data are consistent with the results from global studies in that the lowlands are older than the visible highland surface.
What are the 3 surfaces of the Moon?
While the craters, highlands and maria are the moon’s three main landforms, the moon’s surface has a number of other highly visible features. For example, some impact craters have bright rays that shoot outward from the center. Also, the moon has a number of rilles, which are long, thin tunnels or trenches.
How do we know highlands are older?
How do we know that the highlands are older? Radioactive dating and it because the highlands are more cratered than the maria. Why are their more maria on the near side of the moon? Lava came out of the cracks and created maria.
What evidence shows that the lunar highlands are older than the lunar maria?
Two pieces of evidence that indicates the lunar highlands are older than maria is that maria has few craters, and the highlands have large and more common.
What are the highlands and maria of the Moon?
The highlands are heavily cratered and mountainous. We have learned that the maria are relatively young areas on the Moon which were generated after very large impacts penetrated the crust of our Moon and excavated basins. During later volcanic episodes, liquid magma came to the surface and filled these basins.
Which part of the Moon is the oldest and why?
The oldest lunar features are the lunar highlands. This is mainly determined by looking at the number of impact craters that the different areas of the moon have. The longer that a feature has been around, the more time it has had to be hit by the meteors that leave impact craters.
How old are the lunar maria?
between 3.1 and 3.9 billion years ago
The lunar maria (or plains), which were formed between 3.1 and 3.9 billion years ago, are the youngest geologic units on the lunar surface, except for more recent impact craters. The release of heat from large impacts caused extensive melting and extrusion of basaltic lavas on the moon.
How do we know that the maria formed more recently than the highlands on the Moon?
Scientists can tell this happened recently, in geological terms, because the maria have fewer impact craters than the highland areas.
What are the oldest features on the moon?
Answer and Explanation: The Lunar Highlands are the oldest features of our moon. These highlands are about four billion years old (the moon itself is considered to be about 4.4 billion years old) and were created by a huge crater after the impact of a large object, most likely a meteor, with the moon.
When did the highlands on the moon form?
between 4.1 and 4.4 billion years ago
Because they formed so early in lunar history (between 4.1 and 4.4 billion years ago), the highlands are also extremely heavily cratered, bearing the scars of all those billions of years of impacts by interplanetary debris (Figure 2).
How did the maria form?
The maria basins were formed beginning about 3.9 billion years ago during a period of intense bombardment by asteroid-sized bodies. This was well after the lunar crust had cooled and solidified enough, following the Moon’s formation, to retain large impact scars.
Where do the Highlands begin?
The Highlands stretches from Fort William in the west, right up the coast by Skye, around the North Coast 500 to Durness and John O’ Groats in the far north. It also runs up to Inverness and east out to Elgin, taking in Aviemore and some of the Cairngorms National Park.
What’s the difference between highlands and Lowlands?
The terms ‘highlands’ and ‘lowlands’ are loosely defined: ‘highlands’ as synonymous with ‘mountains’ and, therefore, ‘lowlands’ as those areas beyond and beneath the mountains that are influenced by down-slope physical processes and by human relationships linking the two.
Are lowland Scots Celtic?
Lowlanders differ from Highlanders in their ethnic origin. While Highland Scots are of Celtic (Gaelic) descent, Lowland Scots are descended from people of Germanic stock.
What is the surface of the Moon called?
The surface of the moon is divided into lunar terrae and lunar maria. Lunar maria formed due to volcanic flow that occurred billions of years ago. There has been no volcanic activity in the past 2-3 billions years, the surface of the Moon has remained unchanged ever since then.
What are 4 surface features of the Moon?
The moon’s surface is covered with dead volcanoes, impact craters, and lava flows, some visible to the unaided stargazer. Early scientists thought the dark stretches of the moon might be oceans, and so named such features mare, which is Latin for “seas” (maria when there are more than one).