Wrinkly, faulty geology uncovered on the moon

High resolution images sent back by ESA's SMART-1 lunar probe are helping scientists piece together the geological and volcanic history of the Moon. SMART-1 AMIE image mosaic of the edge of Mare Humorum SMART-1 AMIE image mosaic of the edge of Mare Humorum. The pictures, combined with data from the US's Clementine …

[Hein Kruger]

geology?

On the moon? Surely the word geology only makes sense in reference to Earth.

What about calling it lunology instead?

[Christos Georgiou]

correct, not geology

Actually, 'selenology' is more successful than 'lunology':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenology

[Greg Nelson]

Lunar Beginnings?

Will this information have any bearing on theories of the formation of the moon, or, has the theory of the moon having been formed from a collision of a Mars sized object with a still forming earth taken on so high a degree of acceptance that it's no longer questioned?

[Brian]

RE:geology

That all depends on you're definition of geology.

There definitions that define it as: the geologic features and processes occurring in a given region on the earth or on a celestial body

[Damian Gabriel Moran]

how about...

green cheeseology?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

"A strike-slip fault is a vertical rupture"

surely that's just the edge of the photo?

[Simon Brown]

re: lunar beginnings

Shouldn't have any bearing on the theories of lunar formation whatsoever. Geological features occur as a result of surface processes, whatever the moon's formation process was, what we are seeing now on the surface is as a result of processes which occured once the surface was there to be acted upon. So whatever happened before the surface cooled sufficiently for geological processes to take place, we can't see.

All we know is small iron core, weird angular momentum, isotopic composition similarities to the earth. So any theory of lunar formation has to take into account the facts as we observe them, and the collision / glancing blow theory covers all the bases well.

[Anonymous Coward]

Squares!

Did anyone notice the squares?

[Joel Kelso]

Yes, geology

Selenology, aerology etc sound cool and distinct from plain old earth geology ... but how far are you going to take it ? Plutology (Hadeology ?) Titanology ? Encladiology ? Ioology ? After a point it just gets silly, like english collective nouns. I say we stick with "lunar geology", "martian geology" etc.