Contact: Kevin Stacey
kevin_stacey@brown.edu
401-863-3766
Brown University

Orientale Basin

Caption: The impact that formed the Moon's Orientale basin created a sea of melted rock 220 miles across and 6 miles deep. Similar melt seas probably existed in at least 30 other large impact basins. Rocks formed as these seas cooled and solidified could be mistaken for rocks formed very early in the Moon's history, according to researchers at Brown University.

Credit: NASA

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Related news release: Lunar impacts created seas of molten rock, research shows