The History of the Core Dynamos of Mars and the Moon Inferred From Their Crustal Magnetization: A Brief Review

• Main Author: Arkani-Hamed, Jafar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2018
• Subjects: Aitken; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/96380; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjes-2018-0068

The core dynamos of Mars and the Moon have distinctly different histories. Mars had no core dynamo at the end of accretion. It took ~100 Myr for the core to create a strong dynamo that magnetized the martian crust. Giant impacts during 4.2-4.0 Ga crippled the core dynamo intermittently, until a thick stagnant lithosphere developed on the surface and reduced the heat flux at the core-mantle boundary, killing the dynamo at ~3.8 Ga. On the other hand, the Moon had a strong core dynamo at the end of accretion that lasted ~100 Myr and magnetized its primordial crust. Either precession of the core, or thermo-chemical convection in the mantle, or chemical convection in the core created a strong core dynamo that magnetized the sources of the isolated magnetic anomalies in later times. Mars and the Moon indicate dynamo reversals and true polar wander. The polar wander of the Moon is easier to explain compared to that of Mars. It was initiated by the mass deficiency at South Pole Aitken basin which moved the basin southward by ~68o relative to the dipole axis of the core field. The formation of mascon maria at later times introduced positive mass anomalies at the surface, forcing the Moon to make an additional ~52o degree polar wander. Interaction of multiple impact shock waves with the dynamo, the abrupt angular momentum transfer to the mantle by the impactors, and the global overturn of the core after each impact were probably the factors causing the dynamo reversal. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.