CompuServe Messages

Hi, Tom– I also have the impression that the moon lacks the activity of earth, and was somewhat surprised that lunar volcanism of recent vintage is still suspected. The presumed absence of a significant molten core does suggest that there is little heat, and thus little or no mantle convection, which I expect has been the case since the first half billion years or so. But I can imagine volcanism that might be driven by tidal forces alone (the moon cannot precisely face the earth at all times, thus there are still the tugs that try to make it do so) – perhaps heating due to tidal forces is mostly at the surface. While I see no mechanism that would concentrate radioactives in small volumes near the surface, I cannot be sure there are none, and they also might supply small magma reservoirs. A radioactive meteorite buried under the surface, maybe?? –Doug