June 16, 2004

A Classic Returns!

Image Credit: Northwestern University Center for Planetary Sciences

A Classic Returns! During the 20th century there were only two genuine classics of lunar science: Ralph Baldwin's 1949 Face of the Moon that demonstrated that lunar craters were of impact origin and the mare were volcanic lava flows, and Don Wilhelm's 1987 monumental US Geologic Survey Professional Paper 1348: The Geologic History of the Moon. Baldwin's book was widely distributed and still turns up occasionally in used book stores. But Wilhelm's epic summary of what was learned from telescopic study and Apollo samples has long been out of print and nearly impossible to find. Now it is available online for everyone to download and print out. The Herculean task of scanning (200 dpi for text and 300 dpi for plates) and editing/cleanup was accomplished by Sandy Yoon, Carmen Salas, Julie Beck, and Mark Robinson of the Center for Planetary Sciences and the Department of Geological Sciences at Northwestern University. Paul Spudis, a Wilhelm's disciple now at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, sacrificed a copy of 1348 for dismantling and scanning. All students of the Moon, both professional and amateur, owe Mark and Paul and their scanning colleagues a rousing thanks! Related Links: Wilhelms' Biography Tomorrow's LPOD: Marsh of Epidemics