Anatomy of the early Moon
Anatomy of the early Moon
This model shows the interior of the Moon at an early stage, when its components began to solidify. The floating crust (grey) formed a thermally insulating layer over the remaining magma ocean (yellow) and the still partially molten lunar mantle below. The cooling of the lunar mantle occurred both by convection, that is by the circulation of material in huge cells (seen here as blue-white downward currents), and by the rising of mantle melt, which were formed locally by convection. This hot magma mixed into the remaining magma ocean and slowed down its cooling. Due to this process and the additional insulation provided by the crust, it took about 200 million years for the magma ocean to completely solidify.
