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Planetary Crusts explains how and why solid planets and satellites develop crusts. Extensively referenced and annotated, it presents a geochemical and geological survey of the crusts of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, the asteroid Vesta, and several satellites like Io, Europa, Ganymede, Titan and Callisto. After describing the nature and formation of solar system bodies, the book presents a comparative investigation of different planetary crusts and discusses many crustal controversies. The authors propose the theory of stochastic processes dominating crustal development, and debate the possibility of Earth-like planets existing elsewhere in the cosmos. Written by two leading authorities on the subject, this book presents an extensive survey of the scientific problems of crustal development, and is a key reference for researchers and students in geology, geochemistry, planetary science, astrobiology and astronomy.

Taylor believes that both the deductive skills of geologists and the mathematical approach of astrophysicists are needed to study planets. There appears to be no uniformity in the processes of planetary or satellite formation from the gases, ices and rocky components of the primordial nebula.

The origin of the moon by a single massive impact of a body slightly larger than Mars with the earth can explain the angular momentum, orbital characteristics and unique nature of the earth-moon system. The density and chemical differences between the earth and the moon are accounted for by deriving the moon from the mantle of the impactor. A cosmochemically plausible impactor can be formed in the region of the inner Solar System, lending support to the impact hypothesis.

The Earth formed through the accumulation of smaller rocky bodies, called planetesimals, which formed out of the nebula that gave birth to the whole Solar System. An iconoclastic picture in which the mantle of the young Earth developed a basaltic crust similar to that now found on Venus is proposed.

Before spacecraft exploration, facts about the Moon were restricted to information about the lunar orbit, angular momentum and density. Speculations about composition and origin were unconstrained. Naked eye and telescope observations revealed two major terrains, the old heavily cratered highlands and the younger mostly circular, lightly cratered maria. The lunar highlands were thought to be composed of granite or covered with volcanic ash-flows. The maria were thought to be sediments, or were full of dust, and possibly only a few million years old. A few perceptive observers such as Ralph Baldwin (Baldwin 1949) concluded that the maria were filled with volcanic lavas, but the absence of terrestrial-type central volcanoes like Hawaii was a puzzle. The large circular craters were particularly difficult to interpret. Some thought, even after the Apollo flights, that they were some analogue to terrestrial caldera (e.g., Green 1971), formed by explosive volcanic activity and that the central peaks were volcanoes. The fact that the craters were mostly circular was difficult to accommodate if they were due to meteorite impact, as meteorites would hit the Moon at all angles. The rilles were taken by many as definitive evidence that there was or had been, running water on the lunar surface. Others such as Carl Sagan thought that organic compounds were likely present (see Taylor 1975, p. 111, note 139).[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Arising from: J. M. D. Day et al. Nature457, 179–182 (2009)10.1038/nature07651 ; Day et al. reply The production of terrestrial andesites in subduction zones is well established. Day et al. 1 describe two examples of meteorites (GRA 06128 and GRA 06129) that they claim to represent “an entirely new mode of generation of andesite crust compositions” on asteroids; this suggestion has wide implications for the generation of andesitic planetary crusts in general. However, here we show that compositional data, particularly for the rare-earth elements (REEs) and other lithophile elements, presented in their paper 1 do not substantiate this claim. We conclude that existing mechanisms for andesite generation do not need revision.

\"The Chemical Evolution of the Galaxy\" by Francesca Matteucci is reviewed.

[...] with a petrological classification, as a rock chiefly composed of plagioclase feldspar with subordinate accessory minerals, such as pyroxene, olivine or hornblende. [...] using the chemical classification as shown in Fig. 1 of our paper2. The generation of GRA 06128/9 is probably not plate tectonics, but through low degrees of partial melting of a relatively undifferentiated asteroidal body, as we demonstrated, and for which the Re-Os and oxygen isotope, age and platinum-group element data provide important evidence.