4 ms·
Wait, is there volcanic activity on the moon?
by stephc_int13 4y ago
Wait, is there volcanic activity on the moon?
- wincy 4y agoNot anymore. But there used to be!
- shadowgovt 4y agoThe moon was formed by a massive impact that calved a piece off of Earth. The resulting body formed from accreted material, much of it still very hot from the impact. Since thermal energy has nowhere to go in a closed system like a planetoid except, eventually, radiation, it stayed partially melted for a long time and cooled from the outside in. Earth is actually undergoing a similar process... IIUC, our planet isn't big enough to generate internal heat, and eventually the core heat should radiate away. I don't know if the time scale for it exceeds lifetime of the sun though.
- lutorm 4y agoWikipedia puts the radioactive decay of isotopes at half of the heat flux from the core. So yes, eventually it will cool down, but it is absolutely generating internal heat.
- shadowgovt 4y agoOh, that is awesome. I swear, every time I learn a new thing about Earth's internal structure it gets weirder and cooler.