See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: The Astronomically Forced Sedimentary Record: From Geologic Time Scales to Lunar-Tidal History
Abstract:
There is no easy way to calculate this change in dissipation rate, even over timescales as short as 20,000 years. However, the rising and falling of the ocean tides may be recorded by sedimentary layering (tidalites) or by growth increments in shells and other kinds of mineral skeletons. These different kinds of proxy records have long been used to validate numerical approximations that attempt to reconstruct the history of the Moon's orbital evolution, but these two endeavors have gradually drifted apart. For example, Bills and Ray (1999) make no mention of the proxy constraints in their synthesis of studies of lunar orbital evolution, and their plot of lunar semimajor axis versus time bypasses the best of the geological constraints. Conversely, there are aspects of the physics of the Earth-Moon system that have not been considered by those working on the proxy records. Therefore, a re-evaluation of reported proxy records has been undertaken in an attempt to meld the two approaches to understanding the history of the lunar orbit.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: The Astronomically Forced Sedimentary Record: From Geologic Time Scales to Lunar-Tidal History