File:PIA16589 - Olivine materials mapped to thin moon crust.jpg

English: This graphic depicting the crustal thickness of the moon was generated using gravity data from NASA's GRAIL mission and topography data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The measurements match those found via seismic data at the NASA Apollo mission 12 and 14 landing sites, where crustal thickness is 19 miles (30 kilometres). There is a minimum crustal thickness less than 0.6 mile (1 kilometre) within the nearside Crisium and far side Moscoviense impact basins. The average thickness of the crust is 21 miles (34 kilometres), which is almost 12 miles (20 kilometres) thinner than values from previous studies.

Locations of olivine-rich materials mapped from the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya, which may represent materials excavated from the moon's mantle, are shown as stars. The largest concentrations of olivine-rich materials are found surrounding the Crisium and Moscoviense impact basins, where the crust is nearly absent.

Red corresponds to higher than average densities and blue corresponds to lower than average densities. The average bulk density of the lunar highlands crust is 2,550 kilograms per metre cubed, which is 12 percent lower than generally assumed.

White denotes regions that contain mare basalts (thin lines) and that were not analyzed. Solid circles correspond to prominent impact basins. The largest basin on the moon's far side hemisphere, the South Pole-Aitken basin, has a higher than average density that reflects its atypical iron-rich surface composition.

Data are presented in two Lambert azimuthal equal-area projections centred over the near (left) and far side (right) hemispheres, with each image covering 75 percent of the lunar surface.