lunabase

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lunabase (uncountable)

1. The substance that forms the darker areas of the lunar surface, as opposed to lunarite.
   • 1948, Josiah Edward Spurr, Geology Applied to Selenology: Lunar catastrophic history, page 48:

     The melting conditions in the lunarite were evidently different from those in the lunabase, on account of the difference in chemical composition; and from analogy with terrestrial conditions, the latter melted more easily.

   • 1960, Valdemar Axel Firsoff, Strange world of the moon:

     On this reading of the situation, apart from the water of hydration, there will be very little chemical difference between lunarite and lunabase.

   • 1965, Gilbert Fielder, Lunar geology, page 85:

     Lunarite slopes at greater angles than lunabase, and the difference is due, it is suggested, to the lavas of the lunarite being relatively viscous.

   • 2014, Frederick I. Ordway, Advances in Space Science and Technology, page 42:

     Some crater rings show faintly through the lunabase; others just break surface. Some lunabase areas such as the floor of Petavius are faulted, which may reasonably be attributed to very thin, plastic lunabase cover over a brittle substratum.