Global Lunar Mare Basalt Distribution and Chronology from LRO and Kaguya

Jian Chen's dataset provides the temporal and spatial distribution of lunar mare basalts. The 22.5 MB collection, last updated in April 2026, includes geological contacts and absolute model ages compiled from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Kaguya, and Clementine mission data. It is formatted as ESRI Shapefiles for geospatial analysis.

Use Cases

• Modeling lunar volcanic history based on the temporal distribution of lava flow units.
• Analyzing the spatial extent of mare basalts for geological mapping and resource assessment.
• Studying the coevolution of the Earth-Moon system using the global chronology of lunar basalts.
• Providing a foundational reference layer for planning future lunar exploration missions.

Strengths

• Data is derived from high-precision image mosaics from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera.
• Compilation integrates topographic and compositional datasets from multiple missions (LRO, Kaguya).
• Published under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license for reuse.
• Data is provided in the standard, interoperable ESRI Shapefile format.

Limitations

• Row count and specific column-level documentation are unknown, requiring inspection after download.
• The dataset's 22.5 MB size may limit the granularity of included features.

Provenance

Source

Compiled from literature and data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Kaguya, and Clementine missions.

Collection Method

Refinement of spatial extents from image mosaics and compilation of absolute model age data from published literature.

Time Range

Covers the eruption episodes of lunar mare basalts, but specific date ranges are not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 14:08:03.

Geography

Global lunar surface.