How were the mountain ranges on the Moon formed?
By various means, some of which are the same as the way that mountains on Earth were formed. When the Moon was first formed, many billions of years ago, it was very hot and in a molten state- as it cooled down gradually over hundreds of millenia, a hard crust was formed over the surface. As this hard crust continued to cool, it contracted, causing ridges and chains of rock to become pushed up in ‘wrinkles’ across the lunar surface (very like the effect you see on the skin of an over-ripe apple). Another cause of lunar mountains was volcanic activity- even after the surface of the moon was cool, the interior remained hot, and contained volcanic magma under intense pressure. Every so often, the pressure caused this magma to burst through to the surface as volcano’s- the lava and ash that spewed forth fell back as a hard deposit around the mouth of the volcano’s, which over time built up to form mountains. A third cause of lunar mountains, which happened to a far greater extent upon the M
