Journal of Oceanography and Marine Research
Open Access

William G. Van Dorn

Publications

• Review Article
  Lunar Tsunamis Revisited
  Author(s): Van Dorn WG Van Dorn WG
  
  Two papers published before the Apollo landings showed that the ring spacing of a plurality of multi-ringed lunar maria precisely fit the pattern for explosion-generated gravity waves in a “liquid” overlying a rigid substrate, if frozen at times related to their respective explosion energies. Liquidity was attributed to transient melting of an initially hot, plastic layer beneath a rubble crust, owing to pressure relief behind the shock fronts from energetic meteoroid impacts, and freezing to subsequent solidification, upon restoration of isostatic pressure. This interpretation was largely ignored; most geophysicists thought the moon too rigid to sustain gravity waves. Here I show that current acceptance of an initially molten proto-moon with a thin crust credibly supports the “tsunami-like” generation of the lunar maria and provides new insight to the moon&rsq.. View More»
  DOI: 10.4172/2332-2632.1000115

  Abstract PDF

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