Structure of the lunar crust and the thumper experiment

[Moneer81]

structure of the lunar crust and the "thumper experiment"

Hey guys,

I know that this is an Earth's forums but I have a question about the moon. On Apollo 14, an experiment was done to determine the structure of the lunar crust down to a certain depth. This was done by detonating explosives and studying the resulting seismic waves. This came up recently in a debate with some muslim apologists that are claiming that this experiment proved that at some point the moon was split into two parts and rejoined together, confirming a miracle that the muslim prophet did when he split the moon with his finger 1400 years ago.

I know this whole claim sounds ridiculous but I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this experiment or about the structure of the lunar crust in general. Any info on understanding this will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot

 

[matthyaouw]

The lunar crust is separated into highlands and lowlands. The highlands consist of Anorthosites which accreted when the surface was largely liquid magma. The lowland basins were subsequently filled with basaltic lavas. Plate tectonics never occurred as the crust was too thick, but faults have developed graben valleys (linear rilles) probably due to impact stresses or tidal forces with earth. Perhaps these (or other rilles formed by lava flows) are the evidence they mean.