Why does the far side of the moon have almost no dark spots (maria)?
by 
wickedwillie
ANSWERS: 2
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The dark side of the Moon has been bombarded by impacts. The side we see never gets hit because of its angle. If the dark side does have lava flows (maria) then we can't see them through the craters. The Moon was only alive, geologically, for a short time. So the lava flows are older than most of the craters. This is all hypothetical, but it is an answer. Since there is a lack of exploration of the dark side and since all space knowledge is based on theory, there could be many different answers.
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The likely answer is that the crust on the lunar far side is some 40 kilometers thicker and thus during its early geological period impactors had more difficulty penetrating the surface and creating a lava pool which solidified into the maria as on the near side. Also this was before the moon's rotation became synchronized with its orbital period around earth and because the material which the maria are composed of is very dense the moon's deep-impacted and maria filled side tidally locked with earth due to its higher mass concentration. And so, the fact that the moon's greatest maria filled side faces earth is no coincidence.
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