CRATERING HISTORY AND LUNAR CHRNOLOGY

Abstract

The Moon is exceptional and important because it is the only planetary body besides the Earth for which we have both a detailed stratigraphic history and datable rock samples that can be related to specific geomorphologic units. The Moon has preserved much of its magmatic and impact record of at least the last 4 billion years. While its endogenic history is of great interest for the fundamentals of planetary interiors and surfaces, the Moon has become a calibration plate for the cratering record of the Earth-Moon system, and by extrapolation, of the entire inner solar system if one assumes a heliocentric origin for impactor populations.