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You are here: Experts > Science > Space and Astronomy for Kids > Astronomy > Lunar rilles
Expert: Courtney Seligman - 11/2/2009
Question
i saw your answer about Lunar rilles but the other expert said "The surface of the moon is replete with long channels or grooves that continue to create unsolved puzzles and contradictions for geologists. Every traditional theory, when tested against the photographic evidence, has failed "
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2006/arch06/060317rille.htm
can you give the cleavage theory more time to think about?
Answer
I read the answer I believe you're referring to, and the page you linked to. The latter makes a compelling argument that current theories of rill/rille formation may be wrong; but that doesn't mean that the cleavage theory referred to in the question I originally answered has even the slightest chance of being correct.
It is conceivable that collisions between bodies could break them up -- in fact, that happens "all the time" in the asteroid belt, where once every few tens of millions of years, one asteroid or another has chunks broken off it by a collision with another asteroid. But such collisions wouldn't produce features such as rilles -- they would produce immense craters. And all the really big craters on the Moon are at least 4 billion years old (they predate the formation of the lunar maria, which started around 3.9 billion years ago). The Moon probably formed as the result of a gigantic collision between the Earth and some other planetary object around 4.46 to 4.49 billion years ago; but there is no evidence that once the resulting pieces formed into the Moon (within a few centuries after that collision), any subsequent breakup of the Moon has occurred.
Reading my earlier answer, perhaps I should have made it clear why the cleavage theory could not be correct, in addition to explaining what the accepted theory is. I hope this answer takes care of that oversight.
By the way, although the linked article makes a good argument against accepting current theories of rill formation without any question, I am sure the theory of electrical arcing mentioned there is impossible. The details of how the rilles formed may be uncertain, but I am sure they represent some kind of subsidence, and are not due to any external influence on the Moon.
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