Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Simulating Imaging of Large Scale Radio Arrays on the Lunar Surface
Published on: July 30, 2020
Structure and formation of the lunar farside highlands
Ian Garrick-Bethell1, Francis Nimmo, Mark A Wieczorek
1Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. igarrick@ucsc.edu
Abstract:
The formation of the lunar farside highlands has long been an open problem in lunar science. We show that much of the topography and crustal thickness in this terrain can be described by a degree-2 harmonic. No other portion of the Moon exhibits comparable degree-2 structure. The quantified structure of the farside highlands unites them with the nearside and suggests a relation between lunar crustal structure, nearside volcanism, and heat-producing elements. The farside topography cannot be explained by a frozen-in tidal bulge. However, the farside crustal thickness and the topography it produces may have been caused by spatial variations in tidal heating when the ancient crust was decoupled from the mantle by a liquid magma ocean, similar to Europa's present ice shell.
Related Concept Videos
Tidal Forces
The Nucleolus
The Soil Ecosystem
Conditions on Early Earth
Ovarian Cycle
Methods of Obtaining Topography

