GIGANTIC CONJUGATE DUCTILE SHEAR ZONES IN THE MOON
Dr. Miguel de las Doblas Lavigne, Doctor in Geoscience,CSIC-UCM, retired since 2023, Madrid, Spain, Email: mdoblaslavigne@gmail.com Abstract In this paper we describe several huge ductile crustal-scale shear zones in the Moon (up to 5000 km long and 1000 km wide), that have never been studied and that appear to be the most gigantic ones in the solar system. These zones define conjugate sets of NE-dextral and NW-sinistral shear zones that are indicative of EW compressional stresses once active in this planet. This tectonic pattern confirms the hypothesis of Melosh (1977, 1980 a,b) who envisioned this type of global conjugate strike-slip faulting in the Moon. The age of the deformations described here can be ascribed to a lower Imbrian stage as these structures are partially transected by a series of later impact structures of known lower Imbrian age (Mare Orientale and Schrödinger craters), and thus these shear zones would be the oldest ones in our g...
