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Hyderabad NASA explains that a unique place on Earth, the Stillwater complex in Montana, is rocky and dusty like the Moon and contains a special type of rock, anortosite, which is common in the Moon’s oldest crust. It’s what helps give the Moon its iconic, high-contrast look.
The Stillwater complex in the Beartooth Mountains contains anortosite that closely resembles the most common mineral on the Moon’s surface. The Beartooth Range, near Bozeman, Montana, contains a special type of rock anortosite, a light-colored rock made of crystals that formed from slowly cooled magma. Ninety to 100% anortosite consists of a single mineral – feldspar plagioclase. The Moon’s oldest crust is made from this same type of rock.
The anortosite in the Beartooth Mountains is part of a group of rocks called the Stillwater Complex. The rocks of the Stillwater Complex formed about 2.7 billion years ago when magma in a giant chamber below Earth’s surface began to slowly cool down. As the magma cooled, mineral crystals grew. Over time, the Stillwater complex was exposed to the surface for scientists to study. The rocks of the Stillwater complex are like a miniature moon. They help scientists understand how anortosite is formed.
Stillwater Complex caught the attention of scientists at NASA and the United States Geological Survey for the anortosite. “It is probably the most common single mineral on the Moon’s surface,” said Doug Rickman, an economic geologist and lunar geoscientist (retired) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
From Earth, the lunar anortosite is visible as the lightly colored, highly reflective parts of the Moon’s surface known as the lunar highlands. These are the oldest rocks on the Moon and covered the entire surface of the young Moon before its crust was crushed by asteroids and comets. “The Stillwater complex can teach us about the formation of the anortosite itself, as well as what the moon’s surface is like in the lunar highland regions,” said Sarah Deitrick of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Apollo astronauts brought samples of anortosite from the Moon. These samples are important in helping scientists understand the geology and history of the Moon. However, the small number of samples is not enough to answer all the questions, and scientists cannot easily visit the Moon to study its rocks in more detail. However, scientists can visit the Beartooth Mountain Range in Montana to study the anortosite rocks found there. Their studies of anortosite in Montana helped them understand how the Moon’s anortosite crust formed.
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