Geophysics: Geophysics is the study of the physics of the Earth and its environment in

space. One emphasis is the exploration of the Earth's interior using physical properties
measured at or above the Earth's surface, together with mathematical models to predict those
properties. Subdisciplines include seismology, the study of seismic waves; geomagnetism, the
study of the magnetic field; and geodesy, the study of the gravitational field and the shape of
the Earth's surface. Seismology provides key evidence for large-scale Earth structure and for the
behavior of earthquakes. Mineralogy, and hence density and other physical properties at depth,
is deduced from experiments and mathematical modeling in mineral physics. Mathematical
models underpinning geophysics also predict the large-scale movements within the Earth
(geodynamics).
Syllabus
PHY411 Geophysics
1. The Solar System: The planets; meteorites and their compositions; cosmic ray
exposures of meteorites; the Poynting-Robertson effect; compositions of terrestrial planets.
2. Rotation and the Figure of the Earth: Figure of the earth; precession of the
equinoxes; the Chandler wobble, tidal friction and the history of the Earth-Moon system,
fluctuation in rotation and the excitation of the wobble.
3. The Gravity Field: Gravity as gradient of the geopotential; the satellite geoid; crystal
structure and the principle of isotasy; earth tides. Seismology and the Internal
4. Structure of the Earth: seismicity of the earth; elastic waves and seismic rays; travel
time and velocity depth curves for body waves; internal density and composition; free
oscillation.
5. Geomagnetism: The magnetism of the earth; fundamental equations; measurement of
the magnetic field; the method of Gauss; saturation induction magnetometers; the proton
precision magnetometers; alkali vapour magnetometers; introduction to magnetometers.
6. The Earth’s Internal Heat: The geothermal flux; thermal conduction in the mantle;
temperature in the interior of the earth; energy source for the geomagnetic dynamo.
Planets:
A planet is a large object that orbits
a star. To be a planet, an object must be massive
enough for gravity to have squeezed it into a
spherical, or round, shape. It must also be large
enough for gravity to have swept up any rocky or
icy objects from its path, or orbit, around the star.
Scientists believe planets begin to form when a
dense cloud of dust and gas, called a nebula,
spins around a newly formed star. Gradually,
gravity causes the bits of matter in the nebula to
clump together. Slowly, these clumps accumulate and grow. Eventually, these clumps become
planets.
In addition to orbiting a star, planets also rotate, or spin, around an axis. An axis is an invisible
line that runs through the center of a planet. One complete rotation is called a day. A day on
Earth is about 24 hours. A day on Jupiter takes only 9.8 hours. Venus has the longest day of any
planet in our solar system. It takes 243 Earth days for Venus to make a complete turn on its axis.
Unlike stars, planets do not experience nuclear fusion, the process of combining tiny particles
called atoms to release energy. Nuclear fusion creates radiation (heat and light) and makes stars
glow. Because planets do not have nuclear fusion, they do not produce their own light. Instead,
they shine with light reflected from a star. When we see planets in the night sky, such as Venus,
the so-called "Evening Star," we're seeing reflected sunlight.

The Modern Solar System

The planets of the modern solar system are
grouped into several different and sometimes
overlapping classifications, as illustrated in the
following figure:
• The planets inside the orbit of the earth are
called the Inferior Planets: Mercury and Venus.
• The planets outside the orbit of the earth are
called the Superior Planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
• The planets inside the asteroid belt are
termed the Inner Planets (or the Terrestrial Planets): Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
• The planets outside the asteroid belt are termed the Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
• The planets sharing the gaseous structure of Jupiter are termed the Gas Giant (or Jovian)
Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
• Asteroid: An asteroid is a minor planet—an object that is neither a true planet nor a
comet—that orbits within the inner Solar System. They are rocky, metallic or icy bodies
with no atmosphere. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-
meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter.
• Meteoroids : Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun, just as planets,
asteroids, and comets do. Meteoroids, especially the tiny particles called
micrometeoroids, are extremely common throughout the solar system.
• Comets : Comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed
of dust, rock, and ices. They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they
orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that
can be larger than a planet.
 • Nebula: A nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some nebulae (more than
one nebula) come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star,
such as a supernova. Other nebulae are regions where new stars are beginning to form.
• Chondrites : Chondrites are the most abundant meteorite class, constituting more than
85 percent of meteorite falls. Like most meteorites, chondrites originated in the asteroid
belt where collisions and gravitational perturbations put them into Earth-crossing orbits.
(Ordinary chondrites, in particular, are from S-class asteroids.)
• Dwarf Planets: Dwarf planets are celestial objects that: (i) orbit a star, (ii) are roughly
spherical and (iii) often have many other large bodies such as comets, asteroids, or
other dwarf planets near them. As their name suggests, the main difference between a
dwarf planet and a planet is size. Because they are smaller, dwarf planets lack the
gravitational forces needed to pull in and accumulate all of the material found in their
orbits. Each known dwarf planet in our solar system is actually smaller than Earth's
Moon!
Wonderer: someone who often travels from place to place, especially without any clear aim or
purpose.
Wobble: to shake or move from side to side in a way that shows a lack of balance, or to cause
something to do this: [ I ] The table wobbles because its legs are uneven.

Solar System
Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the
planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such
as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. Beyond our own
solar system, we have discovered thousands of planetary systems orbiting other stars in the
Milky Way.

Planets of the Ancients

The term "planet" originally meant "wanderer": it was observed long ago that certain points of
light wandered (changed their position) with respect to the background stars in the sky. In ancient
times, before the invention of the telescope and before one understood the present structure of
the Solar System, there were thought to be 7 such wanderers or planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, the Moon, and the Sun. This list is different in several respects from our modern
list of planets:
1. The Earth is missing, because it was not understood that the points of light wandering on
the celestial sphere and the Earth on which we stood had anything in common.
2. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are missing because they would only be discovered when the
telescope made them easily visible.
3. Uranus is barely visible to the naked eye; it was discovered in 1781.
 4. Neptune and Pluto are too faint to see at all without a telescope; they were discovered in
1846 and 1930, respectively.
5. The Sun and the Moon were classified as planets because they wandered on the celestial
sphere, just like Mars and Jupiter and the other planets.
6. A central theme of our initial discussion will be how the "7 planets of the Ancients" (only
5 of which are really planets) evolved into our present list of Solar System planets.

Stars and Planets

Observational Differences between Planets & Stars

PLANETS STARS
The planets move relative to stars on celestial The relative positions of the stars are fixed on
sphere celestial sphere
The nearer and larger planets appear as disks in The nearer and larger planets appear as disks in
telescope telescope
The brighter planets do not "twinkle" The stars appear to "twinkle"
The planets are always near the imaginary yearly Stars can be anywhere on the celestial sphere
path of the Sun on the celestial sphere (the ecliptic)

The Celestial Sphere

• Imagine objects to be attached to a sphere
surrounding the earth. This construction is called the
celestial sphere. At any one time we see no more than half
of this sphere, but sometimes the imaginary half-sphere
over our heads is referred to just as the celestial sphere,
without the "half" mentioned.
• The point on the celestial sphere that is directly over our heads at a given time is termed
the zenith. The imaginary circle passing through the North and South points on our
horizon and through the zenith is termed the celestial meridian.
 Celestial Coordinate Systems
• We can define a useful coordinate system for
locating objects on the celestial sphere by projecting
onto the sky the latitude-longitude coordinate system
that we use on the surface of the earth.
• The figure illustrates that these imaginary objects
are the exact analogs of the corresponding imaginary
objects on the surface of the earth. Thus, we shall be
able to specify the precise location of things on the celestial sphere
by giving the celestial analog of their latitudes and longitudes, or
something related to those quantities.

Equator: An equator is an imaginary line around the

middle of a planet or other celestial body. It is halfway
between the north pole and the south pole, at 0 degrees
latitude.
Prime Meridian: A prime meridian is an arbitrary
meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate
system at which longitude is defined to be 0°.
Latitude: In geography, latitude is a coordinate that
specifies the north–south position of a point on the
surface of the Earth or another celestial body.
Longitude: Longitude is the measurement east or west
of the prime meridian. Longitude is measured by
imaginary lines that run around Earth vertically (up and
down) and meet at the North and South Poles. These lines are known as meridians.

Path of the Sun

The rotation of the earth gives us our days, and the orbit around the sun gives us our yearly
seasons. Another important imaginary plane on the celestial sphere is the plane of the "ecliptic"
or "Path of the Sun", which is the imaginary path that the Sun follows on the celestial sphere
over the course of a year.
The ecliptic is important observationally, because the planets, the Sun (by definition), and the
Moon are always found near the ecliptic.
Ecliptic : ecliptic, in astronomy, the great circle that is the apparent path of the Sun among the
constellations in the course of a year; from another viewpoint, the projection on the celestial
sphere of the orbit of Earth around the Sun. The constellations of the zodiac are arranged along
the ecliptic.

Seasons and Climate

• The Earth rotates along the plane of the equator, meaning that the Earth spins in a circle
represented by the equator, or any latitude line, for that matter. (It precesses a little
with respect to its orbit plane, once every 26,000 years at a time.)
• The basic reason for the seasons is: Because the plane of the ecliptic (the plane of the
Sun's apparent path on the sky) is titled with respect to the celestial equator, the
respective hemispheres receive more direct or less direct sunlight at different times in
the earths orbit around the Sun.
• In the northern hemisphere note that the sun in the summer solstice rises in the
northeast, moves high across the sky and settles in the northwest.
• In the northern hemisphere in the winter solstice the sun rises in southeast, scoots low
across the sky and sets in the south west.
There are two important issues here:
• Summer sun is above horizon for more hours a day than for winter sun. Summer days
are long and winter days are short Thus we receive more energy per day.
• Summer sunlight is more direct. More energy per unit area is received by sun. Thing of
the longer shadows cast in winter. The energy per unit time per area is smaller in the
tilted case, and similarly as applies to the sun in the winter.
Equinoxes and Solstices
Equinox
• A time at which the days and nights are the same length around the world.
• Occurs around March 21 and September 21 (but not necessarily on those dates).
 • Occurs when the Sun is directly over the equator.
• The vernal equinox marks the beginning of the seasons, spring.
Solstice
• A time at which either day or night is the longest it will be during the year.
• Occurs around June 21 and December 20 (but not necessarily on those dates).
• Called simply summer or winter solstice and mark the beginning of those seasons.
• Occurs when the sun is directly above 23.5 N latitude (Summer Solstice) or 23.5 S latitude
(Winter Solstice).
• Will allow one pole to have 24 hours of daylight, while the other pole has a 24 hour night.

Precession
The Earth's spin axis precesses (=
wobbles) with a period of 26,000
years due to the fact that the Earth
is not completely spherical. It has a
bulge. Without getting into details,
the sun and the moon pull on this
bulge (tidal torques) and the net
effect is to try to twist the earth
upright during its orbit. The result is
the conical precession.
Astronomical Effects on Earth's
Climate?
There were some effects: the
precession of Earth's spin axis, the slight ellipticity of the Earth's orbit. Is there any sense in
which these effects are important? Possibly:
CLIMATE describes the average weather over decades and centuries. (Weather is what happens
on a day to day basis.) It is possible that these slight effects have an influence on the Earth's
climate.
Earth has gone through ice ages when worldwide climate was cooler and thick ice covered
northern latitudes. Earliest was 5.7 x 108 years ago, then 2.8 x 108 years ago and then 3 x 106
years ago. The effect is somewhat periodic (2.5 x 108 year cycles). Cycles of glacial formation
within ice ages have cycles of about 4 x 104 years. We are now living in a warm period which
began 20,000 years ago

METEORITE
A meteorite is a rock that formed within a planetary body other than the Earth and, through a
series of cosmic chances, crossed the path of the Earth’s orbit and struck its surface.
This is not to be confused with a meteor, which is the visual phenomenon observed when
extraterrestrial material ionizes gases as it enters the atmosphere at an astronomical speed
(shooting star). Prior to entering the atmosphere, a meteorite would be termed a “meteoroid.”
Why One should study METEORITES?
Meteorites are a window into the early evolution of planets and other bodies in our Solar
System. Much of what we know about the origin of the Earth and the other planets is founded
in our understanding of meteoritics (the study of meteorites). Their ages, bulk composition, and
formational history can tell us much about the history of the Earth, and also provide us with a
baseline for understanding geologic processes today.
METEORITE: Classification
1. STONY-IRON METEORITES
2. IRON METEORITES
3. STONY METEORITES

Composition
STONY METEORITES are made up of mostly rock-forming (silicate) minerals. We further classify
stony meteorites into two types: chondrites and achondrites.
Chondrites represent the earliest-formed solid material in the Solar System, and have remained
relatively unchanged for the last 4.56 billion years. These meteorites contain CAIs (calcium and
aluminium-rich inclusions), which have been dated as the oldest solid matter in the Solar System.
Chondrites derive their name from the small spherical structures of which they are composed,
chondrules. These structures are also believed to have condensed from the Solar Nebula, a disc
of swirling hot gas that surrounded the early Sun. Currently, it is thought that all solid material in
the Solar System is derived from this primitive chondritic material. See sample.
Achondrites represent chondritic material that has been altered by igneous and metamorphic
processes. As the name implies, achondrites lack the chondrules found in chondrites (“a” is a latin
prefix meaning “without”). As large enough bodies of chondritic material accumulated, they were
able to generate and retain enough heat (through processes such as radioactive decay) that the
original material melted and recrystallized through a process known as differentiation.
Differentiation results in an Earth-like structure, with to internal layering: a central metal core,
an intermediate layer known as the mantle, and a surface crust. Stony achondrites derive from
the mantle and crustal layers of these differentiated bodies. See Sample.
Primitive Achondrites provide further evidence for the connection between chondrites and
achondrites, as some still contain relict chondrules and a chondritic composition.
Composition of the terrestrial planets
Achondrite
An achondrite is a stony meteorite that does not contain chondrules. It consists of material
similar to terrestrial basalts or plutonic rocks and has been differentiated and reprocessed to a
lesser or greater degree due to melting and recrystallization on or within meteorite parent
bodies.
Enstatite achondrites consist primarily of FeO-free enstatite, and also contain minor
plagioclase, diopside, and forsterite (FeO-free olivine) as well as metal, phosphides, silicide, and
a medley of sulfide minerals.
Composition
STONY-IRON METEORITES are composed of a mixture of metals and silicate minerals. The history
of stony-iron meteorites remains unclear, but the composition of stony-iron meteorites may be
explained if they formed either at the core-mantle boundary of their parent bodies or if they
were produced from violent collisions that mixed crust and mantle material with metals
originating in the core. Stony-iron meteorites include pallasites and mesosiderites.
IRON METEORITES are composed chiefly of metallic iron-nickel alloys. They represent material
sourced from the cores of differentiated parent bodies. Much of what we know of the chemical
composition of Earth’s core has been inferred from studies of iron meteorites – we can’t get to
the Earth’s core with modern technology, but iron meteorites offer the best analogues for
studying the processes of differentiation that facilitated the evolution of Earth’s layered
structure. The meteoritic record contains a disproportionate number of iron meteorites to those
that have actually been observed to fall. This is because iron meteorites are generally the easiest
meteorites to identify in the field.
 Cosmic Rays Exposure
A shower of particles
Primary cosmic particles travel enormous distances
before they collide with the Earth. They are stable
particles, such as protons, light nuclei, gamma rays
or even electrons. If they have enough energy, their
initial collision can spark off a chain reaction,
resulting in the formation of a shower of particles.
Some of these, such as the mesons, are extremely
short lived whereas others, such as muons, live long
enough to reach the ground. These chain reactions
produce also several types of neutrinos.

Poynting–Robertson effect
The Poynting–Robertson effect, also known as Poynting–Robertson drag, named after John
Henry Poynting and Howard P. Robertson, is a process by which solar radiation causes a dust
grain orbiting a star to lose angular momentum relative to its orbit around the star. This is related
to radiation pressure tangential to the grain's motion.
This causes dust that is small enough to be affected
by this drag, but too large to be blown away from
the star by radiation pressure, to spiral slowly into
the star. In the case of the Solar System, this can be
thought of as affecting dust grains from 1 μm to 1
mm in diameter. Larger dust is likely to collide with
another object long before such drag can have an
effect.
Rotation and the Figure of Earth
• The solar system is not simply a collection of stationary planets, moons, and other
bodies around the sun. Each planet rotates, or spins, on its axis.
• The rotation of the Earth on its axis causes
day and night. As the Earth rotates, only one-
half of the Earth faces the sun at any given
time. The half facing the sun is light (day) and
the half facing away from the sun is dark
(night).
• The Earth rotates on its axis once every 23
hours and 56 minutes. So does that mean
that all places on Earth experience 12 hours
of light and 12 hours of dark each day?
During certain times of the year we have
more hours of daylight than at other times.
Why is this? The answer is that the Earth's
axis is not at a right angle with the sun. It is
tilted slightly at an angle of 23.5°. The diagram below shows Earth's tilt in relation to the
sun.
• Because of the tilt of Earth's axis, the amount of daylight varies throughout the year.
The least amount of variation occurs at the equator while the most amount of variation
occurs at the poles. Because of this wide variation, it is never completely dark at the
poles in the summer nor completely light in the winter.
Earth's Revolution
• Earth also travels around the sun in a path called an orbit. The motion around the sun
along its orbit is called a revolution. The amount of time it takes for a single trip around
the sun is called a period of revolution. The period for the Earth to revolve around the sun
is 365.24 days or one year. The .24 days is why every four years February has 29 days.
• Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle. Instead Earth's orbit is slightly elliptical in shape.
Earth's Revolution

Precession of the Equinox

 Equinox is traditionally defined as the time when the
plane of Earth's equator passes through the
geometric center of the Sun's disk.
The Earth wobbles in space like an out-of-balance
top. Each full wobble takes about 25,765 years.
Because of the slow change in our orientation to the
stars, the position of the Sun on the first the day of
spring (the vernal equinox) slowly shifts westward
around the sky, which also moves it around our
calendar. That is why we refer to the effect as the
precession of the equinox. The rate of the shift is 1
day every 71 years.
The position of the Sun on the day of the vernal
equinox is presently in the constellation of Pisces
near the border of Aquarius.
Modern star maps have the equinox entering
Aquarius in about 600 years. The borders are
arbitrary but popular culture and mysticism often
refer to current times as the dawn of the "age of Aquarius," a time of peace and understanding.
The concept of great ages associated with the position of the equinox is ancient, but the
mysticism regarding the age of Aquarius is modern.
Precession of the Equinox
Another effect of the Earth's precession is that the
star nearest the north celestial pole changes over
time. Our familiar north star today, Polaris, will return
to the position of north star again around 27,800, but
due to its own proper motion around the galaxy it will
be farther away from the pole than the 5 degrees it is
now. Back in 23,600 BC it was closer to the pole than
it is now.
From the start of the building of the Stonehenge
monument around 3,800 BC, to well past the building
of the great pyramids in Eqypt in 2500 BC, a star
named Thuban in the constellation Draco would have
been perceived as the north star.
Around the stone-age mammoth-hunting time of 12,000 BC, the bright star Vega in the
constellation Lyra was the north star, and will be again around the year 14,000 AD.
Around 130 BC a greek astronomer named Hipparchus estimated the length of the cycle of Earth's
precession by comparing his own observations to those recorded by Babylonian and Chaldean
astronomers in the preceding centuries.
The reason for the slow wobble is that the Earth is not a perfect sphere. If the Earth were a perfect
sphere there would be no precession at all, but the equatorial diameter of the Earth is larger than
the polar diameter.
The radius of the Earth at the equator is 6378 km and at the poles it is 6356 km. Because
of this and other asymmetries in the shape of the earth, gravitational forces from the Sun and
Moon create torque on the axis.
Chandler wobble
The Chandler wobble or Chandler variation of latitude is a small deviation in the Earth's axis of
rotation relative to the solid earth, which was discovered by and named after American
astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler in 1891. It amounts to change of about 9 metres (30 ft) in the
point at which the axis intersects the Earth's surface and has a period of 433 days. This wobble,
which is an astronomical nutation, combines with another wobble with a period of one year, so
that the total polar motion varies with a period of about 7 years.
The Chandler wobble is an example of the kind of motion that can occur for a freely rotating
object that is not a sphere; this is called a free nutation. Somewhat confusingly, the direction of
the Earth's rotation axis relative to the stars also varies with different periods, and these
motions—caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and Sun—are also called nutations, except for
the slowest, which are precessions of the equinoxes.
Tide and Tidal Friction
Tide: The Moon and Earth exert a gravitational pull on each other. On Earth, the Moon's
gravitational pull causes the oceans to bulge out on both the side closest to the Moon and the
side farthest from the Moon. These bulges create high tides. The low points are where low tides
occur.
The moon is a major influence on the Earth’s tides, but the sun also generates considerable tidal
forces. Solar tides are about half as large as lunar tides and are expressed as a variation of lunar
tidal patterns, not as a separate set of tides. When the sun, moon, and Earth are in alignment (at
the time of the new or full moon), the solar tide has an additive effect on the lunar tide, creating
extra-high high tides, and very low, low tides—both commonly called spring tides. One week
later, when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other, the solar tide partially cancels
out the lunar tide and produces moderate tides known as neap tides. During each lunar month,
two sets of spring tides and two sets of neap tides occur
Tidal friction will slow down the spin of the earth until its rotational period (now 1 day) equals
the orbital period of the moon (now 27.3 days). To conserve angular momentum, the loss of spin
angular momentum must be compensated by an increase in orbital angular momentum.
Fluctuation in rotation of earth
Earth rotation:
Earth's rotation is slowing slightly with time; thus, a day was shorter in the past. This is due to the
tidal effects the Moon has on Earth's rotation. Atomic clocks show that a modern day is longer
by about 1.7 milliseconds than a century ago, slowly increasing the rate at which UTC is adjusted
by leap seconds.
The Wobble of Earth's Axis:
The third orbital change that Milankovich studied is called precession, the cyclical wobble of
Earth's axis in a circle. The motion is like a spinning top when it is about to fall over.

Excitation of the Earth's Chandler wobble

What is the wobble of the Earth called? precession
The Wobble of Earth's Axis: The third orbital change that Milankovich studied is called
precession, the cyclical wobble of Earth's axis in a circle. The motion is like a spinning top when
it is about to fall over. One complete cycle for Earth takes about 26,000 years.
Chandler Wobble
The Chandler wobble or Chandler variation of latitude is a small deviation in the Earth's axis of
rotation relative to the solid earth, which was discovered by and named after American
astronomer Seth Carlo Chandler in 1891.
What is the period of the wobble?
the period of the oscillation (Chandler wobble ) of the earth's axis, varying between 416 and 433
days.
Which of the three motions is responsible for the Earth's wobble?
Recent research by NASA found that the wobble of Earth as it spins is broken up into three
primary factors: glacial rebound, melting of ice, and mantle convection. Previously, scientists
believed glacial rebound to be the primary factor in causing Earth to wobble.
Tidal Friction
Tides stretch the oceans, and to a small extent, the
solid mass of a planet or satellite. In one complete
rotation, the planet material keeps deforming and
relaxing. This takes energy away from the rotation,
transforming it into heat.
In effect, this is a frictional loss, like a giant brake
on the planet. Over the centuries, the moon's
rotation on its own axis has slowed until it presents essentially the same face to the earth.
Since the earth and its oceans are continuously deformed by the tides of the moon and sun, the
earth's rotation is also being slowed. Each century, the day increases by about 3 milliseconds.
This seems small, but over 100 million years (not long in geological time), the day will increase by
about an hour.
Earth-Moon System
Formation of the Moon
The Earth–Moon system has a large amount of angular momentum per unit mass, and the Moon
has a remarkably small core for a body of its size. These observations suggest the Moon formed
from a giant impact, at an oblique angle, between the Earth and a somewhat smaller planetary
embryo dubbed Theia. Numerical simulations show that Theia’s core would have coalesced with
Earth’s, while molten and vaporized material from the mantles of both bodies formed an
accretion disk in orbit around the Earth (Canup, 2004). Theia probably had a mass of about 1/10th
that of the Earth. The fact that the Moon has not subsequently acquired more iron-bearing
material suggests the collision happened near the end of the Earth’s formation (Canup and
Asphaug, 2001). The hafnium–tungsten isotope system indicates that the Moon’s core formed
about 40 Myr after the origin of the solar system, which suggests the Moon-forming impact
happened immediately prior to this (Kleine et al., 2005).
High-resolution impact simulations show that most of the material destined to form the Moon
came from Theia rather than the Earth (Canup, 2004). Today, the Earth and Moon have
essentially identical oxygen isotopic compositions (Wiechert et al., 2001). This suggests Earth and
Theia came from the same region of the solar nebula. Simulations that successfully reproduce
the characteristics of the Earth–Moon system involve low-speed collision, and this also suggests
that the two bodies orbited at roughly the same distance from the Sun (Wada et al., 2006).