document_title: Hercules (1997 film)

question_text: who played the muses in disney's hercules

question_tokens: who played the muses in disney 's hercules

text: Hercules (1997 film)

text: Plot

text: After imprisoning the Titans beneath the ocean, the Greek gods Zeus and his wife, Hera, have a son named Hercules. While the other gods are joyful, Zeus' jealous brother Hades plots to overthrow Zeus and rule Mount Olympus. Turning to the Fates for help, Hades learns that in eighteen years, a planetary alignment will allow him to locate and free the Titans to conquer Olympus, but only if Hercules does not interfere. Hades sends his minions Pain and Panic to dispose of Hercules. The two succeed at kidnapping the infant and feeding him a formula that turns him mortal, but fail to remove his superhuman strength before Hercules is found and adopted by the farmers Amphitryon and Alcmene.

text: Years later, the teenage Hercules becomes an outcast due to his strength, and wonders where he came from. After his foster parents reveal the necklace they found him with, Hercules decides to visit the temple of Zeus for answers. The temple's statue of Zeus comes to life and reveals all to Hercules, telling him that he can regain his godhood by becoming a "true hero". Zeus sends Hercules and his forgotten infanthood friend Pegasus to find the satyr Philoctetes—"Phil" for short—who is known for training heroes. The two meet Phil, who has retired from training heroes due to numerous disappointments, but Hercules inspires him to follow his dream to train a true hero that will be recognized by the gods. Phil trains Hercules into a potential hero, and when he is older, they fly for Thebes. On the way, they meet Megara—"Meg" for short—a sarcastic damsel whom Hercules saves from the centaur Nessus. However, after Hercules, Phil, and Pegasus leave, Meg is revealed to be Hades' minion, having sold her soul to him to save an unfaithful lover.

text: Arriving in Thebes, Hercules is turned down by the downtrodden citizens until Meg says that two boys are trapped in a gorge. Hercules saves them, unaware that they are Pain and Panic in disguise, allowing Hades to summon the Hydra to fight Hercules. Hercules continually cuts off its heads, but more heads replace them until Hercules kills the monster by causing a landslide. Hercules is seen as a hero and a celebrity, but Zeus tells Hercules he is not yet a true hero. Driven to depression, Hercules turns to Meg, who is falling in love with him. Hades learns of this and on the eve of his takeover, offers a deal that Hercules gives up his powers for twenty-four hours. Hercules accepts on the condition that Meg will be unharmed and, after losing his strength, is heartbroken when Hades reveals that Meg is working for him.

text: Hades unleashes the Titans, who climb Olympus and capture the gods, while a Cyclops goes to Thebes to kill Hercules. Phil inspires Hercules to fight and kill the cyclops, but Meg is crushed by a falling pillar when she saves Hercules from it. This breaks Hades' commitment that Meg would come to no harm, and allows Hercules to regain his strength. Hercules and Pegasus fly to Olympus where they free the gods, save Zeus, and vanquish the Titans, though Meg dies before he returns to her. With Meg's soul now Hades' property, Hercules breaks into the Underworld where he negotiates with Hades to free Meg from the Styx in exchange for his own life. His willingness to sacrifice his life restores his godhood and immortality before the life-draining river can kill him; he rescues Meg and punches Hades into the Styx, where irate souls flush him under. After reviving Meg, she and Hercules are summoned to Olympus, where Zeus and Hera welcome their son home. However, Hercules chooses to remain on Earth with Meg, in lieu of immortality. Hercules returns to Thebes where he is hailed as a true hero as Zeus creates a picture of Hercules in the stars commemorating his heroism.

text: Voice cast

text:
Tate Donovan as Hercules, based on the mythological deity Heracles. Supervising animator Andreas Deja described Hercules as "...not a smart aleck, not streetwise, he's just a naive kid trapped in a big body", and that Donovan "had a charming yet innocent quality in his readings". Donovan had not done any voice-over work prior to Hercules. Deja integrated Donovan's "charming yet innocent quality" into Hercules' expressions.[4] Ricky Martin provided both the voice and singing voice for the Latin American Spanish-language dub edition.

Josh Keaton provided the speaking voice of Hercules as a teenager, while Roger Bart provided his singing voice. Originally, Keaton provided also his singing voice, but his singing was re-recorded by Bart.[5] Randy Haycock served as the supervising animator for Hercules as an infant and teenager.

Danny DeVito as Philoctetes/Phil. Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for Philoctetes, cited Grumpy in Snow White and Bacchus in Fantasia as the inspirations for the character's design. Goldberg mentioned that they discovered that Danny DeVito "has really different mouth shapes" when they videotaped his recordings and that they used these shapes in animating Phil.[4]
James Woods as Hades. Producer Alice Dewey mentioned that Hades "was supposed to talk in a slow and be menacing in a quiet, spooky way", but thought that James Woods' manner of speaking "a mile a minute" would be a "great take" for a villain.[4] Woods did a lot of ad-libbing in his recordings, especially in Hades' dialogues with Megara. Nik Ranieri, the supervising animator for Hades, mentioned that the character was "based on a Hollywood agent, a car salesman type", and that a lot came from James Woods' ad-libbed dialogue. He went on to say that the hardest part in animating Hades was that he talks too much and too fast, so much so that "it took [him] two weeks to animate a one-second scene". Ranieri watched James Woods' other films and used what he saw as the basis for Hades' sneer.[4]
Susan Egan as Megara. Supervising animator Ken Duncan stated that she was "based on a '40s screwball comedienne" and that he used Greek shapes for her hair ("Her head is in sort of a vase shape and she's got a Greek curl in the back.").[4]
Frank Welker as Pegasus. Ellen Woodbury served as the supervising animator for Pegasus.
Rip Torn and Samantha Eggar as Zeus and Hera, Hercules' birth-parents. Anthony DeRosa served as the supervising animator for both characters. In the Swedish dub Max von Sydow provided the voice for Zeus.
Lillias White, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, Roz Ryan and Vanéese Y. Thomas as the Muses (Calliope, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Thalia and Clio respectively), the narrators of the film's story. Michael Show served as the supervising animator for the Muses.
Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer as Pain and Panic, Hades' henchmen. James Lopez and Brian Ferguson respectively served as the supervising animators for Pain and Panic.
Patrick Pinney as the Cyclops. Dominique Monfrey served as the supervising animator for the Cyclops.
Hal Holbrook and Barbara Barrie as Amphitryon and Alcmene, Hercules' adoptive parents. Richard Bazley served as the supervising animator for both characters.
Amanda Plummer, Carole Shelley and Paddi Edwards as Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, the three Fates who predict Hades' attempt to conquer Olympus. Nancy Beiman served as the supervising animator for the three characters.
Paul Shaffer as Hermes. Michael Swofford served as the animator for Hermes.
Jim Cummings as Nessus. Chris Bailey served as the animator for Nessus.
Wayne Knight as Demetrius
Keith David as Apollo
Charlton Heston has a cameo role as the opening narrator.

text: Production

text: Development

text: In early 1992, thirty artists, writers, and animators pitched their ideas for potential animated features, each given a limited time of two minutes. The first pitch was for an adaptation of The Odyssey, which entered into production in the following summer.[6] However, production on the film was abandoned when it was deemed too long and lacked central characters,[7] and failed to translate into animation comedy.[8] Animator Joe Haidar also suggested pitching a story from Greek mythology, but thought his chances plummeted when work on The Odyssey was discontinued. Nervously, he produced a pitch sketch of Hercules, and delivered a brief outline set during the Trojan War where both sides seek the title character for their secret weapon. Hercules makes a choice, without considering the consequences, though in the end, he learns humility and realizes that strength is not always the answer.[7] With the pitching session concluded, Hercules was approved for development in which Haidar presented a page-and-a-half outline, but his involvement with the project succeeded no further.[7] In November 1992, fresh off their critical and commercial success of Aladdin, directors Ron Clements and John Musker re-developed Treasure Planet up until fall 1993,[9] with Aladdin co-screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio taking Clements and Musker's ideas and writing a treatment and script for Treasure Planet.[10] Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, disapproved of the project, but struck a deal with the directors to produce another commercially viable film before he would green-light Treasure Planet.[9][11] Turning down adaptation proposals for Don Quixote, The Odyssey, and Around the World in Eighty Days, the directors were notified of Haidar's pitch for a Hercules feature.[9] "We thought it would be our opportunity to do a "superhero" movie," Musker said, so "Ron and I being comic book fans. The studio liked us moving onto that project and so we did [Hercules]."[11]

text: Writing

text: With Hercules in production, Clements and Musker conducted research and wrote extensive notes for the film. On excerpts detailed in November 1993, the similarities between their outlines included the naive title character caught between two worlds, a Danny DeVito-type sidekick, a world-wise heroine, and a powerful villain in a battle of idealism versus cynicism.[7][12] The directors also sought inspiration from classic screwball comedy films directed by Preston Sturges and Frank Capra with "Hercules as the young Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," Musker explained, and "Meg is modeled on Barbara Stanwyck, especially the characters she played in The Lady Eve and Meet John Doe."[13] While preparing the script, Clements and Musker consulted the works of Thomas Bullfinch, Edith Hamilton, Robert Graves, and other interpreters of Greek mythology until they reached the conclusion to not portray the traditional story of Hercules.[14] Because Zeus sired Hercules outside of his marriage with Hera, Clements remarked "that illegitimacy would be difficult subject matter for a Disney movie. So we thought of different ways he could be half-man and half-god. We moved more toward making Hades the villain instead of Hera. The Underworld seemed like such a fascinating, dark images; the contrast with Olympus seemed to have all kinds of visual possibilities."[14] Additionally during their research, the directors were inspired by the correlation of the popularity of Hercules in comparison to that of sport athletes and celebrities in the contemporary era with both directors stating Hercules was the Michael Jordan of his era.[15][16] After multiple meetings and story conferences, Clements and Musker wrote several story treatments before proceeding to their first script draft. Comedy writers Don McEnery and Bob Shaw were recruited by creative executive Jane Healey to work on Hercules where their contribution was "important structural things like putting capital letters at the beginnings of sentences and adding periods and commas." Meanwhile, their draft was concurrently rewritten by Irene Mecchi,[17] which altogether brought additional humor and definition to the script.[18]

text: Casting

text: Donny Osmond originally auditioned as the speaking voice of the title character, but he was turned down because his voice was considered too deep.[19] Writing the role of Philoctetes, Musker and Clements envisioned Danny DeVito in the role. However, DeVito declined to audition so Ed Asner, Ernest Borgnine, Dick Latessa were brought in to read for the part. After Red Buttons had auditioned, he left stating "I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna give this part to Danny Devito!" Shortly after, the directors and producer Alice Dewey approached DeVito at a pasta lunch during the filming of Matilda, where DeVito signed on to the role.[11] For every Disney animated feature since Beauty and the Beast, Susan Egan auditioned for a role, and then landed the role of Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast.[20] Upon learning about Hercules, Egan actively pursued the role of Megara, though she revealed that "Alan Menken initially blocked me from going after that part. He said that the female lead in Hercules was supposed to be this cynical smart-ass, sounding nothing at all like sweet, innocent Belle." Menken eventually relented and allowed Egan to audition for the role.[21] Egan read for the part in front of a microphone while being videotaped, while Menken, Beauty and the Beast musical director Michael Kosarin, and the filmmakers sat at a table with their eyes closed. Nine months following the results of the test animation synced with Egan's audition, Egan won the role.[22] During production, Meg was originally given a ballad titled "I Can't Believe My Heart", but Ken Duncan, the supervising animator of Meg, pointed out the song was out of character for Meg. Menken and Zippel would later compose "I Won't Say I'm In Love" instead.[21]

text: The casting of Hades proved to be very problematic for Musker and Clements. When DeVito asked the directors who had in mind to play Hades, Musker and Clements responded by saying they hadn't selected an appropriate actor. In response, DeVito blurted, "Why don't you ask Jack [Nicholson]?"[23] After DeVito notified Nicholson of the project, the next week, the studio was willing to pay Nicholson $500,000 for the role, but Nicholson demanded roughly a paycheck of $10–15 million, plus a 50% cut of all the proceeds from Hades merchandise.[23] Unwilling to share merchandising proceeds with the actor, Disney came back with a counter offer that was significantly less than what Nicholson had asked for. Therefore, Nicholson decided to pass on the project.[23] Disappointed by the lack of Nicholson, Clements and Musker eventually selected John Lithgow as Hades in fall 1994. After nine months of trying to make Lithgow's portrayal of Hades work, Lithgow was released from the role in August 1995.[24] According to John Musker, Ron Silver, James Coburn, Kevin Spacey, Phil Hartman, and Rod Steiger arrived to the Disney studios to read as Hades.[11] Other actors who auditioned for the role were Michael Ironside, Terrence Mann, and Martin Landau.[25] When they invited James Woods to read for the part, the filmmakers were surprised by Woods's interpretation, and Woods was hired by October 1995.[24] Hades's co-henchman Pain was written with Bobcat Goldthwait in mind, although the actor confessed he still had to audition for the role despite playing himself.[26]

text: Animation and design

text: In 1993, Ron Clements and John Musker fondly remembered a Time magazine cover of the Beatles, illustrated by English cartoonist Gerald Scarfe.[27] While working as the production designer on a production of The Magic Flute, Gerald Scarfe was invited to tour the Disney studios where Clements and Musker noticed a direct correlation between Gerald's style and the Greek vase painting style, and with permission from the Disney studios, Scarfe was hired as production designer to produce a dozen drawings.[28] Scarfe conducted minimal research, not wanting to be influenced by other interpretations where he sent thirty-two sketches via fax machine or courier,[29][28] and ended up producing more than 700 drawings throughout production.[30] By July 1995, Scarfe and fifteen animators and designers began developing working prototypes for every character in the movie. That same year, the filmmakers embarked on a research trip to Greece and Turkey to research classic Greek mythology.[31] Since Scarfe's style proved to be too fluid and chaotic for the animators, production stylist Sue Nichols created reference charts for the animators on which elements of Scarfe's style, as well as classical Greek illustration, to adapt into their work.[32]

text: Animation began in early 1995 with a team of nearly 700 artists, animators, and technicians in Burbank, California while Walt Disney Animation France contributed nearly ten minutes of animation, including the finale with the Titans and Hercules' descent into the Underworld.[33] Andreas Deja, the supervising animator for Hercules, commented that the animation crew he worked with to animate Hercules was the "largest [he] ever worked with". He previously worked on other characters (like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in Aladdin, and Scar in The Lion King) with about four animators on his crew, but he had a team of twelve or thirteen for Hercules.[4] Given Deja had worked with three villains before, he was first offered Hades, but asked to animate Hercules instead – "I knew if would be more difficult and more challenging, but I just needed that experience to have that in your repertoire."[34] Following the release of Pocahontas, Eric Goldberg was initially assigned to animate Hades when Jack Nicholson was thought to play the character, but when Nicholson decided to pass on the project, Goldberg wasn't interested in animating the character anymore. At around the same time, Chris Buck was assigned to animate Philoctetes, but after he left the production of Hercules, this left the character of Philoctetes without a supervising animator.[35] Goldberg then decided to instead animate Philoctetes when DeVito signed onto the role noting his similarities with DeVito in their short stature, baldness, and admittedly a little "soft around the middle". Throughout production, there were twenty-seven designs for the character,[36] with Goldberg doing a literal caricature of DeVito with horns before being vetoed by the directors. While maintaining DeVito's features, Goldberg then took inspiration from Grumpy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bacchus in Fantasia in terms of their curmudgeonly personality and facial structure.[37]

text: For the Hydra, Scarfe provided preliminary drawings to give the mythical beast its requisite fangs and serpentine necks before work was transferred over to the computer animation team headed by Roger Gould. The Hydra was sculpted into a clay model where the dimensions was digitized into the computers into a wire-frame model by which the monster was animated.[38] Early into production, the filmmakers decided the Hydra would ultimately have thirty heads by which the animators created one master head, and the computer could multiply the heads to their desired scale. Overall, thirteen animators and technical directors spent nearly a year-and-a-half creating the four-minute battle sequence.[39] Additionally, because the directors envisioned Olympus as a city composed of clouds, painted backgrounds of clouds and cloud-like imagery were blended with drawn effects animation to create a morphing technique that were used for baby Hercules's cradle and Zeus's reclining chair.[18]

text: Music

text:
Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack

Soundtrack album by Various artists

Released
May 27, 1997

Genre
Pop, gospel, soul, R&B, musical theatre

Label
Walt Disney

Producer
Alan Menken, David Zippel

Walt Disney Animation Studios chronology

The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1996)The Hunchback of Notre Dame1996
Hercules
(1997)
Mulan
(1998)Mulan1998

Singles from Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack

"Go the Distance"
Released: 1997

text: Hercules: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack is the soundtrack for Hercules. It consists of music written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist David Zippel, orchestrated by Daniel Troob and Michael Starobin,[40] with vocals performed by Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Roger Bart, Danny DeVito, and Susan Egan among others. The album also includes the single version of "Go the Distance" by Michael Bolton. For the Spanish version of the film, "Go the Distance" was redone by Ricky Martin and released as a single under the title "No Importa La Distancia" and was also very successful, both inside and outside the United States. In the Turkish version of the film, "Go the Distance" was sung by Tarkan, who also performed the vocals for the adult Hercules.

text: In March 1994, Zippel was attached to compose the lyrics for the songs for the film, teaming up with Alan Menken.[41] Zippel had previously collaborated with Menken on the cabaret revue titled It's Better With a Band, and the musical Diamonds, directed by Harold Prince.[42] Distinctively for the film, the idea to incorporate gospel music for the songs was suggested by co-screenwriter and co-director John Musker, although Menken preferred "something very classic and Greek—a Candide approach".[43] Musker explained, "Gospel is a storytelling kind of music. It can be exhilarating, especially when it gets everybody on their feet. We were looking for a modern equivalent for the Greek references and this style of music seemed to be entertaining and a real departure at the same time."[44] The Spice Girls were originally approached to portray the Muses following an invitation to sing one of the songs, but declined the offer due to scheduling conflicts.[45]

text: For the pop version of "Go the Distance", Michael Bolton was personally chosen by Menken to record the single,[46] in which Columbia Records paid an undisclosed figure to Walt Disney Records for the rights to the soundtrack.[47] "Go the Distance" was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, but ultimately lost both to Celine Dion's hit "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic.

text: Belinda Carlisle recorded two versions of "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" as well as a music video for promotional purposes. Though the English dub eventually opted not to use it, several foreign dubs have it in place of the reprise of "A Star Is Born" in the ending credits. These dubs include, but are not limited to, the Swedish one, the Finnish one, the Icelandic one and the Russian one. Curiously enough, the DVD release of the Swedish dub has replaced it with the reprise of "A Star Is Born".

text: Track list:

text:
"Long Ago..." – Charlton Heston
The Gospel Truth/Main Title – Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
The Gospel Truth II – Roz Ryan
The Gospel Truth III – Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
"Go the Distance" – Roger Bart
Oh Mighty Zeus (Score)
"Go the Distance (Reprise)" – Roger Bart
"One Last Hope" – Danny DeVito
"Zero to Hero" – Tawatha Agee, Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
"I Won't Say (I'm in Love)" – Susan Egan, Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
"A Star Is Born" – Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas
"Go the Distance (Single)" – Michael Bolton
The Big Olive (Score)
The Prophecy (Score)
Destruction of the Agora (Score)
Phil's Island (Score)
Rodeo (Score)
Speak of the Devil (Score)
The Hydra Battle (Score)
Meg's Garden (Score)
Hercules' Villa (Score)
All Time Chump (Score)
Cutting the Thread (Score)
A True Hero/A Star Is Born (End Title) – Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman, and Vanéese Y. Thomas

tag: ol

text: Release

text: Marketing

text: On February 4, 1997, Disney began its marketing campaign by starting a five-month promotional traveling tour, called Disney's Hercules Mega Mall Tour Sponsored by Chevy Venture, throughout 20 cities starting first in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously used for the marketing campaigns for Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the tour featured eleven attractions including a multimedia stage show, a miniature carousel themed to Baby Pegasus, a carnival with Hercules-themed game booths, and a ten-minute animation workshop hosted by animator Andreas Deja where visitors would try their hand at drawing Hercules.[48][49][50]

text: On June 14, the premiere of the film was accompanied with an electric light parade held in Times Square. The parade of electrified floats traveled from 42nd Street to Fifth Avenue and 66th Street with included attendees such as Lauren Hutton, Harvey Keitel, Andy Garcia, Barbara Walters, Michael Bolton, and Marilu Henner, as well as Olympic athletes who later rode on thirty floats in the parade.[51] The media event was not without controversy as former New York mayor Ed Koch objected to surrendering the city over Disney, and critics raising questions about what politicians are willing to give a private firm in return for investment.[52] Also, nearly 100 members of National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians used the occasion to strike for a new contract from Disney/ABC,[53] with local union president Tony Capitano who complained that "I think the Mayor gave away the city to Disneyland", and 5,000 businesses and residents who felt unusually eerie upon being asked to dim their lights as the parade passed.[54] Following the parade, a private party was held at the Chelsea Piers complex, where dinner guests was served to a performance of Susan Egan singing songs from the movie along the Hudson River, and ten minutes of fireworks display.[51]

text: Additionally, the film was accompanied with a marketing campaign with promotional tie-ins with 85 licensees including McDonald's, Mattel, Nestlé, Hallmark[55][56][57] and various merchandise.[58] Hercules was also received the first Disney on Ice adaptation before the film was theatrically released.[59]

text: Home media

text: Hercules was first released on VHS and widescreen laserdisc in the United States on February 3, 1998, included as an installment of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection series. By the summer of 1998, sales and rentals of the VHS release had accumulated to $165 million.[60] Released on November 9, 1999, Hercules was released in a "Limited Issue" DVD for a limited sixty-day time period before going into moratorium.[61] Launching in January 2000, Walt Disney Home Video began the Gold Classic Collection, with Hercules re-issued on VHS and DVD on August 1, 2000.[62] The DVD contained the film in its 1.66:1 aspect ratio and THX-certified, and was accompanied with special features including "The Making of Hercules" documentary video and the "Go The Distance" music video sung by Ricky Martin, as well as an "Animals of the Outback" activity booklet.[63] The film was released on a Special Edition Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on June 10, 2014.[64]

text: On September 1, 2017, Hercules became available on Netflix.[65]

text: Video game

text: A tie-in video game, titled Hercules Action Game, was developed by Eurocom and released in July 1997 for the PC and PlayStation. Another tie-in game was developed by Tiertex Design Studios and was released for the Game Boy by THQ the same month.

text: Reception

text: Box office

text: Wall Street analysts estimated that Hercules could bring in between $150 million in the United States based on the extensive marketing campaign and having a lighter, humorous tone similar to Aladdin.[66] Hercules began its limited release in North America on June 13, 1997, playing in one selected theater. The film earned $249,567 in box office receipts during the weekend of June 13–15, standing at the thirteenth place in the box office ranking.[67] On the following weekend, the film grossed $1.45 million in two weeks when it expanded into two selected theaters.[68] The general release followed on June 27, 1997, in 2,621 screens. During the weekend of June 27–29, box office analysts estimated that Hercules earned $21.5 million ranking second behind Face/Off which grossed $22.7 million.[69][70] In its first two weeks of general release, Hercules amounted $58 million in box office grosses, compared to Pocahontas, which took in $80 million and The Lion King which grossed $119 million in their respective two weeks. Considered a disappointment among Disney shareholders, Disney's stock price slipped 9.7 percent by which executives blamed the film's box office performance on "more competition".[71] By its third weekend, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution president Dick Cook confessed that competing family films such as Men in Black and Batman and Robin played a role in the downward box office performance, but projected the film would receive a worldwide gross of $300 million.[72] Likewise, entertainment analysts also targeted Hercules's lack of appeal for adults and teenagers compared to Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King which served as date movies and family outings.[73] By spring 1998, Hercules grossed $99 million,[74] and the international totals for Hercules raised its gross to $253 million.[2]

text: Critical response

text: Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's consensus reads, "Fast-paced and packed with dozens of pop culture references, Hercules might not measure up with the true classics of the Disney pantheon, but it's still plenty of fun."[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[75]

text: James Woods received universal acclaim from film reviewers for his vocal performance as Hades. Reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman graded the film an A- acclaiming that it was Woods' most exciting performance since Salvador publishing that "Woods' performance is an inspired piece of deadpan vaudeville. His dry jocularity is hilariously incongruous — he's like a hostile, wisecracking salesman trapped in the body of the Antichrist."[76] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a positive review of the film, enjoying the story as well as the animation. Ebert also praised Woods' portrayal of Hades, stating that Woods brings "something of the same verbal inventiveness that Robin Williams brought to Aladdin".[77] Similarly, Chicago Tribune film reviewer Gene Siskel, while awarding the film 2 out of 4 stars, complimented that "the only memorable character in the film is the nicely drawn villain Hades (voice by James Woods), who seeks to turn Hercules to the dark side. Hades supplies the genie-like patter that Robin Williams provided in Aladdin."[78] Janet Maslin of The New York Times also praised Woods's performance remarking "Woods shows off the full verve of an edgy Scarfe villain", and added "On any level, earthly or otherwise, the ingenious new animated Hercules is pretty divine."[79] James Berardinelli, film critic for ReelViews, awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars writing, "the real star of the show is James Woods, whose Hades is the most vibrant Disney creation since Robin Williams' Genie. Hades is a lively villain with a great repertoire of one-liners. And, although Woods isn't as much of a vocal chameleon as Williams, he's close enough that it hardly matters."[80]

text: The Scarfe-inspired animation style received mixed reviews with Berardinelli labeling it as the film's most disappointing aspect noting "this approach makes the film look rushed and, at times, incomplete. It is never a visual marvel – even the computer-generated scenes fail to impress. The sequences intended to offer the biggest spectacle – Olympus and the Underworld – provoke little more than a yawn."[80] Likewise, Siskel noted his surprise of "how soft and cheap the animation looks."[78] Writing for The Washington Post, Desson Howe criticized the animation as being "some of the worst I've ever cringed through, including the corner-cutting junk of Don Bluth movies and every trashy cartoon that passes for entertainment on Saturday morning television. In Hercules, ancient Thebes looks like a hastily sketched field-trip location from public TV's The Magic School Bus; and no self-respecting immortal would be seen dead in this simplistic rendition of Mount Olympus.[81] Nevertheless, Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times noted the animation "has just enough of a different look to it to make things interesting" and praised the Hydra as a technological marvel.[82] Likewise, the music received a mixed response with Rita Kempley of Washington Post writing "Like the other songs by Disney veteran Alan Menken and his new lyricist, David Zippel (City of Angels), the number gets the job done, but it doesn't topple the temple. The score is influenced by gospel, Broadway musicals, processional music and R&B, but its only spice is its variety."[83] Variety film critic Leonard Klady noted the lack of distinctiveness of the music writing Menken "is hitting too many tired notes in his sixth animated score" and "there's simply not a song in the piece that has you humming as you exit the theater, and ballads such as "Go the Distance" will require aggressive repetition to register as playlist material."[84]

text: Controversy

text: Disney intended for the film to have an open-air premiere at Pnyx hill, but the Greek government declined after the Greek media and public panned the film. A Greek newspaper entitled Adsmevtos Typos called it "another case of foreigners distorting our history and culture just to suit their commercial interests".[85]

text: Accolades

text:
Ceremony
Recipient
Category
Result

Academy Awards[86]
"Go the Distance"
(Alan Menken, Composer; David Zippel, Lyricist)
Best Original Song
Nominated

Golden Globes[87]
"Go the Distance"
Best Original Song
Nominated

Saturn Award[88]

Best Fantasy Film
Nominated

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards[89]

Favorite Animated Family Movie
Nominated

Favorite Song from a Movie
"Go the Distance"
Nominated

Young Artist Award[90]
Best Performance in a Voice Over Role  Young Actor
Josh Keaton for Young Hercules's voice
Nominated

Annie Awards

Animated Theatrical Feature
Nominated

Alice Dewey, John Musker, Ron Clements (Producers)
Individual Achievement in Producing
Won

John Musker and Ron Clements (Directors)
Individual Achievement in Directing
Nominated

Ken Duncan (Supervising Animator for "Meg")
Individual Achievement for Animation
Nominated

Nik Ranieri (Supervising Animator for "Hades")
Won

Mauro Maressa (Effects Supervisor)
Individual Achievement in Effects Animation
Won


document_title: The Huntsman: Winter's War

question_text: the huntsman winter's war snow white actress

question_tokens: the huntsman winter 's war snow white actress

root

text: The Huntsman: Winter's War

text: Plot[edit]

text: Evil sorceress Queen Ravenna's powers allow her to know that her younger sister Freya, whose powers have not emerged, is not only engaged in an illicit affair with nobleman Andrew, but is also pregnant with his child. Sometime after Freya gives birth to a baby girl, Freya discovers that Andrew murdered their child and, in a grief-fueled rage, Freya kills him with her sudden emergence of ice powers.

tag: p

text: Freya abandons the kingdom and builds herself a new kingdom. Ruling as the Ice Queen, Freya orders children to be abducted so they can be trained to avoid the pain of love (as she suffered), and to be an army of fearsome huntsmen to conquer for her. Despite the training, two of her best huntsmen, Eric and Sara, grow up and fall in love, secretly marry, and plan to escape together. Freya discovers their secret and confronts them, creates a massive ice wall to separate them, then casts Eric out of her kingdom after first forcing him to watch as Sara is killed by their fellow huntsmen.

text: Seven years later, and after Ravenna's death, Queen Snow White falls ill after hearing Ravenna's Magic Mirror calling her. Because of its dark magic, she ordered it to be taken to Sanctuary, the magical place that sheltered Snow White during the events leading to Ravenna's death, so the mirror's magic could forever be contained. Snow White's husband, William, informs Eric that the soldiers tasked with carrying the Mirror went missing while en route to the Sanctuary. Eric realizes that he is being watched by Freya through magic. Knowing the magic of the mirror can make Freya even stronger, Eric agrees to investigate, but reluctantly allows Snow White's dwarf ally Nion and his half-brother Gryff to come along.

text: While travelling to the last known location of the soldiers, the trio are attacked by a group of Freya's huntsmen, but are rescued by Sara. Sara reveals that she was imprisoned by Freya the entire time, only to escape recently. While Eric was made to see Sara die she was made to see him running away rather than fighting to help her. Eric convinces her that Freya conjured these visions, and eventually has Sara join with him and the dwarves to thwart Freya. The quartet is ensnared in a trap set by she-dwarves Bromwyn and Doreena. They convince the she-dwarves to help them find the Mirror, and the two lead them to the goblins that stole the mirror from Snow White's soldiers. The party fight off the goblins and retrieve the Mirror.

text: As the group nears the Sanctuary with the Mirror, they are ambushed by Freya and her huntsmen. Freya reveals Sara has been loyal to her all along, and that Sara was using her companions to find the Mirror. In the ensuing chaos, Nion and Doreena are turned into ice statues, and Sara shoots an arrow into Eric's chest on Freya's order, killing him. Freya departs with the Magic Mirror, but she is unaware that Sara intentionally missed so that Eric could live. Back in her palace, Freya recites the iconic verse associated with the Mirror, resurrecting Ravenna, who became one with the Mirror when Snow White vanquished her. Boasting a new suite of powers thanks to the Mirror, Ravenna usurps Freya's rule by coordinating Freya's huntsmen and army to reclaim the kingdoms Snow White liberated.

text: Eric infiltrates the ice palace with help of Gryff and Bromwyn. He attempts to assassinate Freya, but is stopped by Ravenna. When Freya realizes that Sara didn't actually kill Eric, she reluctantly sentences them both to death because of Ravenna's manipulation. However, Eric is able to convince a few huntsmen to rebel, claiming the love of brethren. Ravenna begins to kill the huntsmen. Freya, realizing that she regards the huntsmen as her "children", protects them with an ice wall, separating the huntsmen from the sisters. As Eric, Sara and the rebelling huntsmen climb over the wall to fight Ravenna and Freya, the two sisters argue over the icy kingdom. Freya forces Ravenna (who as the mirror spirit must answer her summoner's questions truthfully) to reveal that she ultimately caused the death of Freya's child so she could remain the fairest of them all, so Freya finally turns against her sister. Freya is impaled by Ravenna, but with her remaining strength Freya freezes the Magic Mirror. Eric shatters the Mirror, thus destroying Ravenna. As Freya dies from her wounds, she smiles at the sight of a vision of her old loving self, and gladly witnesses Eric and Sara together.

text: With Freya's death, those who had been imprisoned by Freya's magic are set free, including Nion and Doreena, while a mysterious golden bird flies overhead. Eric, Sara and the huntsmen look forward to a new future while the dwarves pair off romantically and Eric and Sara share a kiss finally happy to have a life together for the first time in years.

text: In a post-credits scene, Snow White with a crown on her head is seen from behind. The aforementioned bird flies and lands on the balcony next to her.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Chris Hemsworth as Eric, a huntsman.
Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna, Snow White's evil stepmother who returns from the dead.
Emily Blunt as Freya, Ravenna's sister.
Jessica Chastain as Sara, a warrior who is Eric's wife.
Nick Frost as Nion, a Dwarf who previously helped Eric and Snow White defeat Ravenna's army.
Rob Brydon as Gryff, a debt-collecting Dwarf who is Nion's half-brother.
Sheridan Smith as Mrs. Bromwyn, a feisty and greedy Dwarf who becomes allies with Nion and Gryff.
Alexandra Roach as Doreena, a shy and gentle Dwarf and Nion's love interest.
Sam Claflin as King William, Snow White's husband who helped her and Eric defeat Ravenna's army.
Sope Dirisu as Tull, a fellow Huntsman.
Sam Hazeldine as Liefr, a fellow Huntsman.
Sophie Cookson as Pippa, a fellow Huntswoman.
Conrad Khan as Young Eric
Niamh Walter as Young Sara
Fred Tatasciore as the voice of Mirror Man, the physical form of the Magic Mirror.
Colin Morgan as Andrew, the Duke of Blackwood and Freya's lover.
Madeleine Worrall as Eric's mother.
Kristen Stewart as Snow White (uncredited, archive footage)
Liam Neeson as The Narrator (uncredited)

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: A sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman was initially planned with director Rupert Sanders in talks to return.[citation needed] The sequel plans were changed in August 2012 to a spin-off film concentrating on the Huntsman instead.[5] Universal announced a few days later that they were not shelving the sequel.[6] Another report stated that Universal authorized a sequel[7] with Stewart set to reprise her role, but without Sanders to return as the director.[8] A script was written and production was set to begin at some point in 2013,[7] with the film to be released in 2015.[9] On June 4, 2014, Deadline reported that Frank Darabont, Gavin O'Connor and Andrés Muschietti were on the shortlist to direct a sequel.[10] On June 26, 2014, Deadline confirmed that Darabont was in talks to direct the sequel.[11]

text: On July 31, 2014, it was announced that the film would be a prequel titled Huntsman and would not star Stewart as Snow White.[12][13] Years later, Stewart claimed she voluntarily turned down an offer from the studio to provide a cameo in the film.[14] On January 16, 2015, it was announced that Darabont had exited the film after he parted with Universal.[15] Hemsworth and Theron were set to return for the film, while Emily Blunt was being circled for a new role.[15] On January 20, 2015, it was confirmed that VFX specialist Cedric Nicolas-Troyan was set to direct the film, whose last draft was written by Darabont, following drafts by Craig Mazin and Evan Spiliotopoulos.[16]

text: Casting[edit]

text: On February 24, 2015, Jessica Chastain was set to star in the film, Nick Frost was confirmed to reprise his previous role, while Blunt, who had been rumored to be interested, finally closed a deal to star as well.[17] On March 18, 2015, it was revealed that Sheridan Smith, Rob Brydon, and Alexandra Roach were added to the cast to play dwarves alongside Frost's character Nion.[18] TheWrap confirmed on May 7, 2015, that Sam Claflin would return as William in the sequel.[19]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Principal photography on the film began on April 6, 2015.[20] Filming took place at Waverley Abbey in Surrey, England in April 2015.[21] Filming also occurred from May to July 2015 in Windsor Great Park, England, at locations including South Forest, Johnson's Pond and in the Deer Park near Snow Hill.[22] Filming was also done in Wells Bishop's Palace and Wells Cathedral.[22][23] In July 2015, filming also took place at Puzzlewood, in the Forest of Dean.[24]

text: Music[edit]

text: On October 8, 2015, it was officially announced, that James Newton Howard would return to score the film, after creating the music for Snow White and the Huntsman. The score album was released on April 22, 2016.[25] Singer Halsey promoted the film by releasing an alternate version of her song "Castle", along with a subsequent music video, made for the film.

text: Release[edit]

text: On July 31, 2014, Universal Pictures announced the film's release date would be April 22, 2016.[12] In February 2016, it was announced that the film would be released in 3D in international markets like Germany. In Poland, the theatrical release was scheduled for April 8, 2016, which was the date for many other international markets.[26]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: On November 16, 2015, Universal Pictures unveiled four character posters for the film, along with the film's new title, The Huntsman: Winter's War.[27] Three days later, on November 18, 2015, the first official trailer of the film was released, along with two additional teaser posters.[28] A second trailer debuted on February 11, 2016.[29] Universal released a final trailer on March 22, 2016.[30] Hemsworth, Theron, and Chastain introduced a performance by Halsey of "Castle" at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.

text: Home media[edit]

text: The Huntsman: Winter's War was released on Digital HD on August 2, 2016, and was followed by a release on Blu-ray and DVD on August 23, 2016.[31][32] The film debuted at No. 1 on the home video sales chart.[33]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: The Huntsman: Winter's War grossed $48.4 million in North America and $116.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $165 million, against a production budget of $115 million.[3]

text: North America[edit]

text: In the United States and Canada, early tracking suggested the film would open to $24–30 million, which was significantly lower than its predecessor's $56.2 million opening in 2012. The film opened in 3,791 theaters[34][35][36] and grossed $7.3 million on its first day,[37] including $1 million from its early Thursday night previews.[38] In its opening weekend, it grossed a lower-than-expected $19.4 million, which was about 64% less than the original film's opening.[39][40] Due to its underperforming opening weekend, the film lost Universal $30–40 million, with some estimates having the total losses at up to $70 million.[41] The Hollywood Reporter estimated the film lost the studio at least $75 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[42]

text: Outside North America[edit]

text: Internationally, The Huntsman: Winter's War was released in a total of 65 countries.[43] There were some estimates that the film will end its run at about $150 million internationally, which is lower than its predecessor's total of $240 million ($190 million in today's exchange). One notable difference is that while Winter's War has secured a release date in China, Snow White and the Huntsman did not play there, and analysts believe that could make "some difference".[44] It was released in 18 countries two weeks ahead of its U.S. debut, earning $19.1 million from 3,969 screens, and had No. 1 openings in eleven of them, and second overall at the international box office charts, behind the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.[45] In its second weekend, it added 7 new markets and grossed a total of $17.8 million, falling only by 8% from its previews weekend, and still remained at No. 2, behind The Jungle Book.[44]  It was still No. 2 in its third weekend.[46] Its top openings occurred in China ($10.4 million), the United Kingdom and Ireland ($4.2 million), Brazil ($3.1 million), Mexico ($2.8 million), France ($2.6 million), Korea ($2.1 million), Russia ($2 million), the Philippines ($1.6 million), Malaysia ($1.6 million), Spain ($1.4 million), and Thailand ($1.2 million).[44][45][46] In China, it was in third place, behind local pic Yesterday Once More and the continued run of The Jungle Book.[46] It lost a tremendous number of screens in its second weekend due to the arrival of three new local pics – Book of Love, Phantom of the Theater and MBA Partners – along with the continued run of The Jungle Book and as a result it grossed just $710,000.[47][48]

text: In terms of total earnings, its largest markets outside of North America are China ($15.6 million), the UK ($7.3 million) and Mexico ($7.2 million).[47]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 17%, based on 199 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's consensus reads, "The Huntsman: Winter's War is visually arresting and boasts a stellar cast, but neither are enough to recommend this entirely unnecessary sequel."[49] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 35 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[50] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[38]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Award

Category

Recipient(s)

Result

Ref(s)

Golden Trailer Awards

Best Action

"No Mercy"

Nominated

[51]

Best Fantasy Adventure

"Mirror Online"

Nominated

The Don LaFontaine Award for Best Voice Over

"Mirror Online"

Nominated

Best Motion/Title Graphics

"Mirror Online"

Nominated

Jupiter Awards

Best International Actor

Chris Hemsworth

Nominated

[52]

Teen Choice Awards

Choice Movie: Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The Huntsman: Winter's War

Nominated

[53]

Choice Movie Actor: Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Chris Hemsworth

Nominated

Choice Movie Actress: Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Charlize Theron

Nominated

Choice Movie: Villain

Charlize Theron

Nominated

Choice Movie: Liplock

Chris Hemsworth & Jessica Chastain

Nominated

Choice Music: Song from a Movie or TV Show

"Castle" by Halsey

Nominated

tag: table


document_title: List of nominated members of Rajya Sabha

question_text: who is the first nominated woman of rajya sabha

text: As per the Fourth Schedule (Articles 4(1) and 80(2)) of the Constitution of India, 12 members are nominated by President for term of six years for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social services.

text: Current Nominated Members of Rajya Sabha[edit]

text: This is a Current list of Members of the Rajya Sabha who have been nominated by the President.

text:
No.
Name[1]
Field
Affiliation [2]
Date of
Appointment[3]
Date of
Retirement[3]

1
Roopa Ganguly
Art
Bharatiya Janata Party
04-Oct-2016
03-Oct-2022

2
Sambhaji Raje
Social work
Bharatiya Janata Party
07-Jun-2016
03-May-2022

3
Suresh Gopi
Art
Bharatiya Janata Party
25-Apr-2016
24-Apr-2022

4
Subramanian Swamy
Economics
Bharatiya Janata Party
25-Apr-2016
24-Apr-2022

5
Narendra Jadhav
Economics
Nominated
25-Apr-2016
24-Apr-2022

6
Mary Kom
Sport
Nominated
25-Apr-2016
24-Apr-2022

7
Swapan Dasgupta
Journalism
Nominated
25-Apr-2016
24-Apr-2022

8
K. T. S. Tulsi
Law
Nominated
25-Feb-2014
24-Feb-2020

9
K. Parasaran
Law
Nominated
09-Jun-2012
28-Jun-2018

10
Rekha
Art
Nominated
27-Apr-2012
26-Apr-2018

11
Sachin Tendulkar
Sport
Nominated
27-Apr-2012
26-Apr-2018

12
Anu Aga
Business
Nominated
27-Apr-2012
26-Apr-2018

text: Complete List of Nominated Members of Rajya Sabha[edit]

text: This is a Complete list of Members of the Rajya Sabha who have been nominated by the President.

text:
Sr. No.
Image
Name
Tenure

1
 –
Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer
1952–1953

2

Satyendranath Bose
1952–1960

3

Prithviraj Kapoor
1952–1960

4
 –
Jagadisan Mohandas Kumarappa
1952–1954

5
 –
Kalidas Nag
1952–1954

6

Rukmini Devi Arundale
1952–1962

7
 –
N.R. Malkani
1952–1962

8
 –
Sahib Singh Sokhey
1952–1956

9
 –
Zakir Hussain
1952–1962

10
 –
Maithili Sharan Gupt
1952–1964

11
 –
Kakasaheb Kalelkar
1952–1964

12
 –
Radha Kumud Mukherjee
1952–1958

13

P.V. Kane
1953–1964

14
 –
Moturi Satyanarayana
1954–1966

15
 –
Ardeshir Ruttonji Wadia
1954–1966

16
 –
Bhargavram Vitthal Warerkar
1956–1968

17
 –
Tara Chand
1956–1968

18
 –
Ajudhia Nath Khosla
1958–1964

19
 –
K.M. Panikkar
1959–1966

20
 –
Jairamdas Daulatram
1959–1976

21
 –
Mohanlal Saksena
1959–1964

22
 –
Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay
1960–1966

23
 –
V.T. Krishnamachari
1961–1967

24
 –
R.R. Diwakar
1962–1968

25
 –
Gopal Singh
1962–1968

26
 –
M. Ajmal Khan
1964–1972

27
 –
Satyavrata Siddhantalankar
1964–1968

28

Shakuntala Paranjpye
1964–1970

29
 –
Badri Nath Prasad
1964–1970

30
 –
G. Ramachandran
1964–1970

31
 –
M. N. Kaul
1964–1972

32
 –
Harivanshrai Bachchan
1966–1972

33
 –
Dhananjay Ramchandra Gadgil
1966–1972

34
 –
M.C. Setalvad
1966–1972

35

G. Sankara Kurup
1968–1972

36

Joachim Alva
1968–1974

37

S. Nurul Hasan
1968–1974

38
 –
K. Ramiah
1968–1974

39
 –
Ganga Sharan Sinha
1968–1974

40
 –
Maragatham Chandrasekhar
1970–1988

41
 –
Umashankar Joshi
1970–1976

42
 –
Rasheeduddin Khan
1970–1982

43
 –
Vidya Prakash Dutt
1971–1980

44
 –
Abu Abraham
1972–1978

45
 –
Pramathanath Bishi
1972–1978

46
 –
C. K. Daphtary
1972–1978

47
 –
Habib Tanvir
1972–1978

48
 –
Krishna Kriplani
1974–1980

49

Lokesh Chandra
1974–1986

50
 –
Scato Swu
1974–1986

51
 –
B.N. Banerjee
1976–1982

52
 –
Malcolm Adiseshiah
1978–1984

53
 –
Fathema Ismail
1978–1984

54
 –
Pandurang Dharmaji Jadhav
1978–1984

55
 –
Bhagwati Charan Varma
1978–1984

56

Nargis Dutt
1980–1986

57

Khushwant Singh
1980–1986

58
 –
Asima Chatterjee
1982–1990

59

Sivaji Ganesan
1982–1986

60
 –
Hayatullah Ansari
1982–1988

61
 –
Madan Bhatia
1982–1994

62
 –
V.N. Tiwari
1982–1984

63
 –
Ghulam Rasool Kar
1984–1987

64
 –
Tindivanam K. Ramamurthy
1984–1990

65
 –
H.L. Kapur
1985–1988

66

Salim Ali
1985–1988

67
 –
Purushottam Kakodkar
1985–1991

68

Ela Bhatt
1986–1988

69
 –
Amrita Pritam
1986–1992

70

M.F. Husain
1986–1992

71

R.K. Narayan
1986–1992

72

Ravi Shankar
1986–1992

73
 –
Syeda Anwara Taimur
1988–1990

74
 –
Sat Paul Mittal
1988–1994

75
 –
Bishambhar Nath Pande
1988–1994

76
 –
Mohammad Yunus
1989–1995

77

Prakash Ambedkar
1990–1996

78

Jagmohan
1990–1996

79
 –
Bhupinder Singh Mann
1990–1996

80
 –
Russi Karanjia
1991–1997

81
 –
Mahendra Prasad
1993–1994

82
 –
M. Aram
1993–1999

83

Vyjayantimala Bali
1993–1999

84
 –
B.B. Dutta
1993–1999

85
 –
Maulana Habibur Rahman Nomani
1993–1999

86

Nirmala Deshpande
1997 – 1999 and 2004 – 2010

87

Shabana Azmi
1997–2003

88
 –
P. Selvie Das
1997–2003

89
 –
Kartar Singh Duggal
1997–2003

90

Kuldip Nayyar
1997–2003

91
 –
Raja Ramanna
1997–2003

92

C. Narayana Reddy
1997–2003

93

Mrinal Sen
1997–2003

94
 –
Chaudhary Harmohan Singh Yadav
1997–2003

95
 –
Nanaji Deshmukh
1999–2005

96

Lata Mangeshkar
1999–2005

97
 –
Fali Nariman
1999–2005

98
 –
Cho Ramaswamy
1999–2005

99

Hema Malini
2003–2009

100
 –
Bimal Jalan
2003–2009

101

K. Kasturirangan
2003–2009

102
 –
Narayan Singh Manaklao
2003–2009

103
 –
Vidya Niwas Misra
2003–2009

104
 –
Chandan Mitra
2003–2009

105

Dara Singh
2003–2009

106

Kapila Vatsyayan
2006–2012

107

Ram Jethmalani
2006–2009

108
 –
Shobhana Bhartia
2006–2012

109

Shyam Benegal
2006–2012

110

M.S. Swaminathan
2007–2013

111
 –
C. Rangarajan
2008–2010

112
 –
H. K. Dua
2009–2015

113
 –
Ashok Sekhar Ganguly
2009–2015

114
 –
Mani Shankar Aiyar
2010–2016

115

Javed Akhtar
2010–2016

116

B. Jayashree
2010–2016

117

Ram Dayal Munda
2010–2011

118
 –
Bhalchandra Mungekar
2010–2016

119
 –
Mrinal Miri
2012–2016

120
 –
Anu Aga
2012–2018

121
 –
K. Parasaran
2012–2018

122

Rekha
2012–2018

123

Sachin Tendulkar
2012–2018

124
 –
K. T. S. Tulsi
2014-2020

125

Subramanian Swamy
2016-2022

126

M C Mary Kom
2016-2022

127

Narendra Jadhav
2016-2022

129

Suresh Gopi
2016-2022

130
 –
Swapan Dasgupta
2016-2022

131
 –
Sambhaji Raje
2016-2022

132
 –
Roopa Ganguly
2016-2022


document_title: Tropical cyclone basins

question_text: where do cyclones occur in the southern hemisphere

text: Tropical cyclone basins

text: Overview[edit]

text:
Tropical cyclone basins and official warning centre.

Basin
Warning Center
Area of responsibility
Refs

Northern Hemisphere

North Atlantic
Eastern Pacific
United States National Hurricane Center
United States Central Pacific Hurricane Center
Equator northward, African Coast – 140°W
Equator northward, 140°W-180
[2]

Western Pacific
Japan Meteorological Agency
Equator-60°N, 180-100°E
[3]

North Indian Ocean
India Meteorological Department
Equator northward, 100°E-45°E

Southern Hemisphere

South-West
Indian Ocean
Meteo France Reunion
Equator-40°S, African Coast-90°E
[4]

Australian region
Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika
Papua New Guinea National Weather Service
Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Equator-10°S, 90°E-141°E
Equator-10°S, 141°E-160°E
10°S-36°S, 90°E-160°E
[5]

Southern Pacific
Fiji Meteorological Service
Meteorological Service of New Zealand
Equator-25°S, 160°E-120°W
25°S-40°S, 160°E-120°W
[5]

text: Northern Hemisphere[edit]

text: North Atlantic Ocean[edit]

text: This region includes the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical cyclone formation here varies widely from year to year, ranging from one to over twenty-five per year.[6] Most Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes form between June 1 and November 30. The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) monitors the basin and issues reports, watches and warnings about tropical weather systems for the Atlantic Basin as one of the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centres for tropical cyclones as defined by the World Meteorological Organization.[7] On average, 11 named storms (of tropical storm or higher strength) occur each season, with an average of 6 becoming hurricanes and 2 becoming major hurricanes. The climatological peak of activity is around September 10 each season.[8]

text: The United States Atlantic coast and Gulf Coast, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and Bermuda are frequently affected by storms in this basin. Venezuela, the 4 provinces of Atlantic Canada, and Atlantic Macaronesian islands also are occasionally affected. Many of the more intense Atlantic storms are Cape Verde-type hurricanes, which form off the west coast of Africa near the Cape Verde islands. Occasionally, a hurricane that evolves into an extratropical cyclone can reach western Europe, including Hurricane Gordon, which spread high winds across Spain and the British Isles in September 2006.[9] Hurricane Vince, which made landfall on the southwestern coast of Spain as a tropical depression in October 2005, is the only known system to impact mainland Europe as a tropical cyclone in the NHC study period commencing in 1851[10] (it is believed a hurricane made landfall in Spain in 1842).[11]

text: Eastern Pacific[edit]

text: The Northeastern Pacific is the second most active basin and has the highest number of storms per unit area. The hurricane season runs between May 15 and November 30 each year, and encompasses the vast majority of tropical cyclone activity in the region.[12] In the 1971–2005 period, there were an average of 15–16 tropical storms, 9 hurricanes, and 4–5 major hurricanes (storms of Category 3 intensity or greater) annually in the basin.[12]

text: Storms that form here often affect western Mexico, and less commonly the Continental United States (in particular California), or northern Central America. No hurricane included in the modern database has made landfall in California; however, historical records from 1858 speak of a storm that brought San Diego winds over 75 mph (65 kn; 121 km/h) (marginal hurricane force), though it is not known if the storm actually made landfall.[13] Tropical storms in 1939, 1976 and 1997 brought gale-force winds to California.[13]

text: The Central Pacific Hurricane Center's area of responsibility (AOR) begins at the boundary with the National Hurricane Center' AOR (at 140 °W), and ends at the International Date Line, where the Northwestern Pacific begins.[14] The hurricane season in the North Central Pacific runs annually from June 1 to November 30;[15] The Central Pacific Hurricane Center monitors the storms that develop or move into the defined area of responsibility.[14] The CPHC previously tasked with monitoring tropical activity in the basin was originally known as the Joint Hurricane Warning Center; today it is called the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

text: Central Pacific hurricanes are rare and on average 4 to 5 storms form or move in this area annually.[15] As there are no large contiguous landmasses in the basin, direct hits and landfalls are rare; however, they occur occasionally, as with Hurricane Iniki in 1992, which made landfall on Hawaii,[16] and Hurricane Ioke in 2006, which made a direct hit on Johnston Atoll.[17]

text: Northwestern Pacific Ocean[edit]

text: The Northwest Pacific Ocean is the most active basin on the planet, accounting for one-third of all tropical cyclone activity. Annually, an average of 25.7 tropical cyclones in the basin acquire tropical storm strength or greater; also, an average of 16 typhoons occurred each year during the 1968–1989 period.[6] The basin occupies all the territory north of the equator and west of the International Date Line, including the South China Sea.[14] The basin sees activity year-round; however, tropical activity is at its minimum in February and March.[18]

text: Tropical storms in this region often affect China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, plus numerous Oceanian islands such as Guam, the Northern Marianas and Palau. Sometimes, tropical storms in this region affect Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and even Singapore. The coast of China sees the most landfalling tropical cyclones worldwide.[19] The Philippines archipelago receives an average of 6–7 tropical cyclone landfalls per year.[20]

text: North Indian Ocean[edit]

text: This basin is divided into two areas: the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, with the Bay of Bengal dominating (5 to 6 times more activity). Still, this basin is the most inactive worldwide, with only 4 to 6 storms per year.

text: This basin’s season has a double peak: one in April and May, before the onset of the monsoon, and another in October and November, just after.[21] This double peak occurs because powerful vertical wind shear in between the surface monsoonal low and upper tropospheric high during the monsoon season tears apart incipient cyclones.[22] High shear explains why no cyclones can form in the Red Sea, which possesses the necessary depth, vorticity and surface temperatures year-round. Rarely do tropical cyclones that form elsewhere in this basin affect the Arabian Peninsula or Somalia; however, Cyclone Gonu caused heavy damage in Oman on the peninsula in 2007.

text: Although the North Indian Ocean is a relatively inactive basin, extremely high population densities in the Ganges and Ayeyarwady Deltas mean that the deadliest tropical cyclones in the world have formed here, including the 1970 Bhola cyclone, which killed 500,000 people. Nations affected include India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Pakistan.

text: Mediterranean Sea[edit]

text: On rare occasions, tropical-like systems, that can reach the intensity of hurricanes, occur over the Mediterranean Sea. Such a phenomenon is called a Medicane (mediterranean-hurricane). Although the geographical dimensions of tropical oceans and the Mediterranean Sea are clearly different, the precursor mechanisms of these perturbations, based on the air-sea thermodynamic imbalance, are similar.[23] Their origins are typically non-tropical, and develop over open waters under strong, initially cold-core cyclones, similar to subtropical cyclones or anomalous tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin, like Karl (1980), Vince (2005), Grace (2009) or Chris (2012).[24] Sea surface temperatures in late-August and early-September are quite high over the basin (24/28 °C or 75/82 °F), though research indicates water temperatures of 20 °C (68 °F) are normally required for development.[25]

text: Meteorological literature document that such systems occurred in September 1947, September 1969, January 1982, September 1983, January 1995, October 1996, September 2006, November 2011 and November 2014.[26][27] The 1995 system developed a well-defined eye, and a ship recorded 85 mph (140 km/h) winds, along with an atmospheric pressure of 975 mbar. Although it had the structure of a tropical cyclone, it occurred over 61 °F (16 °C) water temperatures, suggesting it could have been a polar low.[28]

text: Southern Hemisphere[edit]

text: Within the Southern Hemisphere tropical cyclones generally form on a regular basis between the African coast and the middle of the South Pacific. Tropical and Subtropical Cyclones have also been noted occurring in the Southern Atlantic Ocean at times. For various reasons including where tropical cyclones form, there are several different ways to split the area between the American and African coasts. For instance the World Meteorological Organization define three different basins for the tracking and warning of tropical cyclones. These are the South-West Indian Ocean between the African Coast and 90°E, the Australian region between 90°E and 160°E and the South Pacific between 160°E and 120°W. The United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center also monitors the whole region, but splits it at 135°E into the South Pacific and the Southern Indian Ocean.

text: South-West Indian Ocean[edit]

text: The South-West Indian Ocean is located within the Southern Hemisphere between the Africa's east coast and 90°E and is primarily monitored by the Meteo France's La Reunion RSMC, while the Mauritian, Australian Indonesian, and Malagasy weather services also monitor parts of it.[29] Until the start of the 1985–86 tropical cyclone season the basin only extended to 80°E, with the 10 degrees between 80 and 90E considered to be a part of the Australian region.[30] On average about 9 cyclones per develop into tropical storms, while 5 of those go on to become tropical cyclones that are equivalent to a hurricane or a typhoon.[31] The tropical cyclones that form in this area can affect some of the various Indian Ocean island nations and or various countries along Africa's east coast.

text: Australian region[edit]

text: Through the middle of 1985, this basin extended westward to 80E. Since then, its western boundary has been 90E.[30] Tropical activity in this region affects Australia and Indonesia. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the most frequently hit portion of Australia is between Exmouth and Broome in Western Australia.[32] The basin sees an average of about seven cyclones each year, although more can form or come in from other basins, such as the South Pacific.[6][33][34] The tropical cyclone Cyclone Vance in 1999 produced the highest recorded speed winds in an Australian town or city at around 267 km/h (166 mph).[35]

text: South Pacific[edit]

text: The South Pacific Ocean basin runs between 160°E and 120°W, with tropical cyclones developing in it officially monitored by the Fiji Meteorological Service and New Zealand's MetService.[36] Tropical Cyclones that develop within this basin generally affect countries to the west of the dateline, though during El Niños cyclones have been known to develop to the east of the dateline near French Polynesia. On average the basin sees nine tropical cyclones annually with about half of them becoming severe tropical cyclones.

text: South Atlantic Ocean[edit]

text: Cyclones rarely form in other tropical ocean areas, which are not formally considered tropical cyclone basins. Tropical depressions and tropical storms occur occasionally in the South Atlantic, and the only full-blown tropical cyclones on record were 2004's Hurricane Catarina, which made landfall in Brazil and 2010's Tropical Storm Anita, which formed off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul. The South Atlantic Ocean is not officially classified as a tropical cyclone basin by the World Meteorological Organization and does not have a designated regional specialized meteorological center (RSMC). However, the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center has started in 2011 to assign names to tropical and subtropical systems in this basin, when they have sustained wind speeds of at least 65 km/h (40 mph).


document_title: Geology of the Moon

question_text: which rock unit on the surface of the moon is the youngest

text: Geology of the Moon

text: Elemental composition[edit]

text: Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. The oxygen content is estimated at 45% (by weight). Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) appear to be present only in trace quantities from deposition by solar wind.

text: Neutron spectrometry data from Lunar Prospector indicate the presence of hydrogen (H) concentrated at the poles.[1]

text: Formation[edit]

text: For a long period of time, the fundamental question regarding the history of the Moon was of its origin. Early hypotheses included fission from Earth, capture, and co-accretion. Today, the giant impact hypothesis is widely accepted by the scientific community.[2]

text: Geologic history[edit]

text: The geological history of the Moon has been defined into six major epochs, called the lunar geologic timescale. Starting about 4.5 billion years ago,[3] the newly formed Moon was in a molten state and was orbiting much closer to Earth resulting in tidal forces.[4] These tidal forces deformed the molten body into an ellipsoid, with the major axis pointed towards Earth.

text: The first important event in the geologic evolution of the Moon was the crystallization of the near global magma ocean. It is not known with certainty what its depth was, but several studies imply a depth of about 500 km or greater. The first minerals to form in this ocean were the iron and magnesium silicates olivine and pyroxene. Because these minerals were denser than the molten material around them, they sank. After crystallization was about 75% complete, less dense anorthositic plagioclase feldspar crystallized and floated, forming an anorthositic crust about 50 km in thickness. The majority of the magma ocean crystallized quickly (within about 100 million years or less), though the final remaining KREEP-rich magmas, which are highly enriched in incompatible and heat-producing elements, could have remained partially molten for several hundred million (or perhaps 1 billion) years. It appears that the final KREEP-rich magmas of the magma ocean eventually became concentrated within the region of Oceanus Procellarum and the Imbrium basin, a unique geologic province that is now known as the Procellarum KREEP Terrane.

text: Quickly after the lunar crust formed, or even as it was forming, different types of magmas that would give rise to the Mg-suite norites and troctolites[5] began to form, although the exact depths at which this occurred are not known precisely. Recent theories suggest that Mg-suite plutonism was largely confined to the region of the Procellarum KREEP Terrane, and that these magmas are genetically related to KREEP in some manner, though their origin is still highly debated in the scientific community. The oldest of the Mg-suite rocks have crystallization ages of about 3.85 Ga. However, the last large impact that could have excavated deep into the crust (the Imbrium basin) also occurred at 3.85 Ga before present. Thus, it seems probable that Mg-suite plutonic activity continued for a much longer time, and that younger plutonic rocks exist deep below the surface.

text: Analysis of the lunar samples seems to imply that a significant percentage of the lunar impact basins formed within a very short period of time between about 4 and 3.85 Ga ago. This hypothesis is referred to as the lunar cataclysm or late heavy bombardment. However, it is now recognized that ejecta from the Imbrium impact basin (one of the youngest large impact basins on the Moon) should be found at all of the Apollo landing sites. It is thus possible that ages for some impact basins (in particular Mare Nectaris) could have been mistakenly assigned the same age as Imbrium.

text: The lunar maria represent ancient flood basaltic eruptions. In comparison to terrestrial lavas, these contain higher iron abundances, have low viscosities, and some contain highly elevated abundances of the titanium-rich mineral ilmenite. The majority of basaltic eruptions occurred between about 3 and 3.5 Ga ago, though some mare samples have ages as old as 4.2 Ga, and the youngest (based on the method of crater counting) are believed to have erupted only 1 billion years ago. Along with mare volcanism came pyroclastic eruptions, which launched molten basaltic materials hundreds of kilometres away from the volcano. A large portion of the mare formed, or flowed into, the low elevations associated with the nearside impact basins. However, Oceanus Procellarum does not correspond to any known impact structure, and the lowest elevations of the Moon within the farside South Pole-Aitken basin are only modestly covered by mare (see lunar mare for a more detailed discussion).

text: Impacts by meteorites and comets are the only abrupt geologic force acting on the Moon today, though the variation of Earth tides on the scale of the Lunar anomalistic month causes small variations in stresses.[6] Some of the most important craters used in lunar stratigraphy formed in this recent epoch. For example, the crater Copernicus, which has a depth of 3.76 km and a radius of 93 km, is believed to have formed about 900 million years ago (though this is debatable). The Apollo 17 mission landed in an area in which the material coming from the crater Tycho might have been sampled. The study of these rocks seem to indicate that this crater could have formed 100 million years ago, though this is debatable as well. The surface has also experienced space weathering due to high energy particles, solar wind implantation, and micrometeorite impacts. This process causes the ray systems associated with young craters to darken until it matches the albedo of the surrounding surface. However, if the composition of the ray is different from the underlying crustal materials (as might occur when a "highland" ray is emplaced on the mare), the ray could be visible for much longer times.

text: After resumption of Lunar exploration in the 1990s, it was discovered there are scarps across the globe that are caused by the contraction due to cooling of the Moon.[7]

text: Strata and epochs[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: On the top of the lunar stratigraphical sequence rayed impact craters can be found. Such youngest craters belong to the Copernican unit. Below it can be found craters without the ray system, but with rather well developed impact crater morphology. This is the Eratosthenian unit. The two younger stratigraphical units can be found in crater sized spots on the Moon. Below them two extending strata can be found: mare units (earlier defined as Procellarian unit) and the Imbrium basin related ejecta and tectonic units (Imbrian units). Another impact basin related unit is the Nectarian unit, defined around the Nectarian Basin. At the bottom of the lunar stratigraphical sequence the pre-Nectarian unit of old crater plains can be found. The stratigraphy of Mercury is very similar to the lunar case.

text: Lunar landscape[edit]

text: The lunar landscape is characterized by impact craters, their ejecta, a few volcanoes, hills, lava flows and depressions filled by magma.

text: Highlands[edit]

text: The most distinctive aspect of the Moon is the contrast between its bright and dark zones. Lighter surfaces are the lunar highlands, which receive the name of terrae (singular terra, from the Latin for Earth), and the darker plains are called maria (singular mare, from the Latin for sea), after Johannes Kepler who introduced the name in the 17th century. The highlands are anorthositic in composition, whereas the maria are basaltic. The maria often coincide with the "lowlands," but it is important to note that the lowlands (such as within the South Pole-Aitken basin) are not always covered by maria. The highlands are older than the visible maria, and hence are more heavily cratered.

text: Maria[edit]

text: The major products of volcanic processes on the Moon are evident to Earth-bound observers in the form of the lunar maria. These are large flows of basaltic lava that correspond to low-albedo surfaces covering nearly a third of the near side. Only a few percent of the farside has been affected by mare volcanism. Even before the Apollo missions confirmed it, most scientists already thought that the maria are lava-filled plains, because they have lava flow patterns and collapses attributed to lava tubes.

text: The ages of the mare basalts have been determined both by direct radiometric dating and by the technique of crater counting. The oldest radiometric ages are about 4.2 Ga, whereas the youngest ages determined from crater counting are about 1 Ga (1 Ga = 1 billion years). Volumetrically, most of the mare formed between about 3 and 3.5 Ga before present. The youngest lavas erupted within Oceanus Procellarum, whereas some of the oldest appear to be located on the farside. The maria are clearly younger than the surrounding highlands given their lower density of impact craters.

text:
Moon – Evidence of young lunar volcanism (October 12, 2014)

Volcanic rilles near the crater Prinz

Volcanic domes within the Mons Rümker complex

Wrinkle ridges within the crater Letronne

Rima Ariadaeus is a graben. NASA photo taken during Apollo 10 mission.

text: A large portion of maria erupted within, or flowed into, the low-lying impact basins on the lunar nearside. However, it is unlikely that a causal relationship exists between the impact event and mare volcanism because the impact basins are much older (by about 500 million years) than the mare fill. Furthermore, Oceanus Procellarum, which is the largest expanse of mare volcanism on the Moon, does not correspond to any known impact basin. It is commonly suggested that the reason the mare only erupted on the nearside is that the nearside crust is thinner than the farside. Although variations in the crustal thickness might act to modulate the amount of magma that ultimately reaches the surface, this hypothesis does not explain why the farside South Pole-Aitken basin, whose crust is thinner than Oceanus Procellarum, was only modestly filled by volcanic products.

text: Another type of deposit associated with the maria, although it also covers the highland areas, are the "dark mantle" deposits. These deposits cannot be seen with the naked eye, but they can be seen in images taken from telescopes or orbiting spacecraft. Before the Apollo missions, scientists believed that they were deposits produced by pyroclastic eruptions. Some deposits appear to be associated with dark elongated ash cones, reinforcing the idea of pyroclasts. The existence of pyroclastic eruptions was later confirmed by the discovery of glass spherules similar to those found in pyroclastic eruptions here on Earth.

text: Many of the lunar basalts contain small holes called vesicles, which were formed by gas bubbles exsolving from the magma at the vacuum conditions encountered at the surface. It is not known with certainty which gases escaped these rocks, but carbon monoxide is one candidate.

text: The samples of pyroclastic glasses are of green, yellow, and red tints. The difference in color indicates the concentration of titanium that the rock has, with the green particles having the lowest concentrations (about 1%), and red particles having the highest concentrations (up to 14%, much more than the basalts with the highest concentrations).

text: Rilles[edit]

text: Rilles on the Moon sometimes resulted from the formation of localized lava channels. These generally fall into three categories, consisting of sinuous, arcuate, or linear shapes. By following these meandering rilles back to their source, they often lead to an old volcanic vent. One of the most notable sinuous rilles is the Vallis Schröteri feature, located in the Aristarchus plateau along the eastern edge of Oceanus Procellarum. An example of a sinuous rille exists at the Apollo 15 landing site, Rima Hadley, located on the rim of the Imbrium Basin. Based on observations from the mission, it is generally believed that this rille was formed by volcanic processes, a topic long debated before the mission took place.

text: Domes[edit]

text: A variety of shield volcanoes can be found in selected locations on the lunar surface, such as on Mons Rümker. These are believed to be formed by relatively viscous, possibly silica-rich lava, erupting from localized vents. The resulting lunar domes are wide, rounded, circular features with a gentle slope rising in elevation a few hundred meters to the midpoint. They are typically 8–12 km in diameter, but can be up to 20 km across. Some of the domes contain a small pit at their peak.

text: Wrinkle ridges[edit]

text: Wrinkle ridges are features created by compressive tectonic forces within the maria. These features represent buckling of the surface and form long ridges across parts of the maria. Some of these ridges may outline buried craters or other features beneath the maria. A prime example of such an outlined feature is the crater Letronne.

text: Grabens[edit]

text: Grabens are tectonic features that form under extensional stresses. Structurally, they are composed of two normal faults, with a down-dropped block between them. Most grabens are found within the lunar maria near the edges of large impact basins.

text: Impact craters[edit]

text: The origin of the Moon's craters as impact features became widely accepted only in the 1940s. This realization allowed the impact history of the Moon to be gradually worked out by means of the geologic principle of superposition. That is, if a crater (or its ejecta) overlaid another, it must be the younger. The amount of erosion experienced by a crater was another clue to its age, though this is more subjective. Adopting this approach in the late 1950s, Gene Shoemaker took the systematic study of the Moon away from the astronomers and placed it firmly in the hands of the lunar geologists.

text: Impact cratering is the most notable geological process on the Moon. The craters are formed when a solid body, such as an asteroid or comet, collides with the surface at a high velocity (mean impact velocities for the Moon are about 17 km per second). The kinetic energy of the impact creates a compression shock wave that radiates away from the point of entry. This is succeeded by a rarefaction wave, which is responsible for propelling most of the ejecta out of the crater. Finally there is a hydrodynamic rebound of the floor that can create a central peak.

text: These craters appear in a continuum of diameters across the surface of the Moon, ranging in size from tiny pits to the immense South Pole–Aitken basin with a diameter of nearly 2,500 km and a depth of 13 km. In a very general sense, the lunar history of impact cratering follows a trend of decreasing crater size with time. In particular, the largest impact basins were formed during the early periods, and these were successively overlaid by smaller craters. The size frequency distribution (SFD) of crater diameters on a given surface (that is, the number of craters as a function of diameter) approximately follows a power law with increasing number of craters with decreasing crater size. The vertical position of this curve can be used to estimate the age of the surface.

text: The most recent impacts are distinguished by well-defined features, including a sharp-edged rim. Small craters tend to form a bowl shape, whereas larger impacts can have a central peak with flat floors. Larger craters generally display slumping features along the inner walls that can form terraces and ledges. The largest impact basins, the multiring basins, can even have secondary concentric rings of raised material.

text: The impact process excavates high albedo materials that initially gives the crater, ejecta, and ray system a bright appearance. The process of space weathering gradually decreases the albedo of this material such that the rays fade with time. Gradually the crater and its ejecta undergo impact erosion from micrometeorites and smaller impacts. This erosional process softens and rounds the features of the crater. The crater can also be covered in ejecta from other impacts, which can submerge features and even bury the central peak.

text: The ejecta from large impacts can include larges blocks of material that reimpact the surface to form secondary impact craters. These craters are sometimes formed in clearly discernible radial patterns, and generally have shallower depths than primary craters of the same size. In some cases an entire line of these blocks can impact to form a valley. These are distinguished from catena, or crater chains, which are linear strings of craters that are formed when the impact body breaks up prior to impact.

text: Generally speaking, a lunar crater is roughly circular in form. Laboratory experiments at NASA's Ames Research Center have demonstrated that even very low-angle impacts tend to produce circular craters, and that elliptical craters start forming at impact angles below five degrees. However, a low angle impact can produce a central peak that is offset from the midpoint of the crater. Additionally, the ejecta from oblique impacts show distinctive patterns at different impact angles: asymmetry starting around 60˚ and a wedge-shaped "zone of avoidance" free of ejecta in the direction the projectile came from starting around 45˚.[8]

text: Dark-halo craters are formed when an impact excavates lower albedo material from beneath the surface, then deposits this darker ejecta around the main crater. This can occur when an area of darker basaltic material, such as that found on the maria, is later covered by lighter ejecta derived from more distant impacts in the highlands. This covering conceals the darker material below, which is later excavated by subsequent craters.

text: The largest impacts produced melt sheets of molten rock that covered portions of the surface that could be as thick as a kilometer. Examples of such impact melt can be seen in the northeastern part of the Mare Orientale impact basin.

text: Regolith[edit]

text: The surface of the Moon has been subject to billions of years of collisions with both small and large asteroidal and cometary materials. Over time, these impact processes have pulverized and "gardened" the surface materials, forming a fine-grained layer termed regolith. The thickness of the lunar regolith varies between 2 meters beneath the younger maria, to up to 20 meters beneath the oldest surfaces of the lunar highlands. The regolith is predominantly composed of materials found in the region, but also contains traces of materials ejected by distant impact craters. The term mega-regolith is often used to describe the heavily fractured bedrock directly beneath the near-surface regolith layer.

text: The regolith contains rocks, fragments of minerals from the original bedrock, and glassy particles formed during the impacts. In most of the lunar regolith, half of the particles are made of mineral fragments fused by the glassy particles; these objects are called agglutinates. The chemical composition of the regolith varies according to its location; the regolith in the highlands is rich in aluminium and silica, just as the rocks in those regions.[citation needed] The regolith in the maria is rich in iron and magnesium and is silica-poor, as are the basaltic rocks from which it is formed.

text: The lunar regolith is very important because it also stores information about the history of the Sun. The atoms that compose the solar wind – mostly helium, neon, carbon and nitrogen – hit the lunar surface and insert themselves into the mineral grains. Upon analyzing the composition of the regolith, particularly its isotopic composition, it is possible to determine if the activity of the Sun has changed with time. The gases of the solar wind could be useful for future lunar bases, because oxygen, hydrogen (water), carbon and nitrogen are not only essential to sustain life, but are also potentially very useful in the production of fuel. The composition of the lunar regolith can also be used to infer its source origin.

text: Lunar lava tubes[edit]

text: Lunar lava tubes form a potentially important location for constructing a future lunar base, which may be used for local exploration and development, or as a human outpost to serve exploration beyond the Moon. A lunar lava cave potential has long been suggested and discussed in literature and thesis.[9] Any intact lava tube on the Moon could serve as a shelter from the severe environment of the lunar surface, with its frequent meteorite impacts, high-energy ultraviolet radiation and energetic particles, and extreme diurnal temperature variations.[10][11][12] Following the launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, many lunar lava tubes have been imaged.[13] These lunar pits are found in several locations across the Moon, including Marius Hills, Mare Ingenii and Mare Tranquillitatis.

text: Lunar magma ocean[edit]

text: The first rocks brought back by Apollo 11 were basalts. Although the mission landed on Mare Tranquillitatis, a few millimetric fragments of rocks coming from the highlands were picked up. These are composed mainly of plagioclase feldspar; some fragments were composed exclusively of anorthositic plagioclase. The identification of these mineral fragments led to the bold hypothesis that a large portion of the Moon was once molten, and that the crust formed by fractional crystallization of this magma ocean.

text: A natural outcome of the hypothetical giant-impact event is that the materials that re-accreted to form the Moon must have been hot. Current models predict that a large portion of the Moon would have been molten shortly after the Moon formed, with estimates for the depth of this magma ocean ranging from about 500 km to complete melting. Crystallization of this magma ocean would have given rise to a differentiated body with a compositionally distinct crust and mantle and accounts for the major suites of lunar rocks.

text: As crystallization of the lunar magma ocean proceeded, minerals such as olivine and pyroxene would have precipitated and sank to form the lunar mantle. After crystallization was about three-quarters complete, anorthositic plagioclase would have begun to crystallize, and because of its low density, float, forming an anorthositic crust. Importantly, elements that are incompatible (i.e., those that partition preferentially into the liquid phase) would have been progressively concentrated into the magma as crystallization progressed, forming a KREEP-rich magma that initially should have been sandwiched between the crust and mantle. Evidence for this scenario comes from the highly anorthositic composition of the lunar highland crust, as well as the existence of KREEP-rich materials.

text: Lunar rocks[edit]

text: Surface materials[edit]

text: The Apollo program brought back 380.05 kilograms (837.87 lb) of lunar surface material,[14] most of which is stored at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston, Texas, and the uncrewed Soviet Luna programme returned 326 grams (11.5 oz) of lunar material. These rocks have proved to be invaluable in deciphering the geologic evolution of the Moon. Lunar rocks are in large part made of the same common rock forming minerals as found on Earth, such as olivine, pyroxene, and plagioclase feldspar (anorthosite). Plagioclase feldspar is mostly found in the lunar crust, whereas pyroxene and olivine are typically seen in the lunar mantle.[15] The mineral ilmenite is highly abundant in some mare basalts, and a new mineral named armalcolite (named for Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, the three members of the Apollo 11 crew) was first discovered in the lunar samples.

text: The maria are composed predominantly of basalt, whereas the highland regions are iron-poor and composed primarily of anorthosite, a rock composed primarily of calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar. Another significant component of the crust are the igneous Mg-suite rocks, such as the troctolites, norites, and KREEP-basalts. These rocks are believed to be genetically related to the petrogenesis of KREEP.

text: Composite rocks on the lunar surface often appear in the form of breccias. Of these, the subcategories are called fragmental, granulitic, and impact-melt breccias, depending on how they were formed. The mafic impact melt breccias, which are typified by the low-K Fra Mauro composition, have a higher proportion of iron and magnesium than typical upper crust anorthositic rocks, as well as higher abundances of KREEP.

text: Composition of the maria[edit]

text: The main characteristics of the basaltic rocks with respect to the rocks of the lunar highlands is that the basalts contain higher abundances of olivine and pyroxene, and less plagioclase. They are more rich in iron than terrestrial basalts, and also have lower viscosities. Some of them have high abundances of a ferro-titanic oxide called ilmenite. Because the first sampling of rocks contained a high content of ilmenite and other related minerals, they received the name of "high titanium" basalts. The Apollo 12 mission returned to Earth with basalts of lower titanium concentrations, and these were dubbed "low titanium" basalts. Subsequent missions, including the Soviet robotic probes, returned with basalts with even lower concentrations, now called "very low titanium" basalts. The Clementine space probe returned data showing that the mare basalts have a continuum in titanium concentrations, with the highest concentration rocks being the least abundant.

text: Internal structure[edit]

text: The current model of the interior of the Moon was derived using seismometers left behind during the crewed Apollo program missions, as well as investigations of the Moon's gravity field and rotation.

text: The mass of the Moon is sufficient to eliminate any voids within the interior, so it is believed to be composed of solid rock throughout. Its low bulk density (~3346 kg m−3) indicates a low metal abundance. Mass and moment of inertia constraints indicate that the Moon likely has an iron core that is less than about 450 km in radius. Studies of the Moon's physical librations (small perturbations to its rotation) furthermore indicate that the core is still molten. Most planetary bodies and moons have iron cores that are about half the size of the body. The Moon is thus anomalous in having a core whose size is only about one quarter of its radius.

text: The crust of the Moon is on average about 50 km thick (though this is uncertain by about ±15 km). It is widely believed that the far-side crust is on average thicker than the near side by about 15 km.[16] Seismology has constrained the thickness of the crust only near the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites. Although the initial Apollo-era analyses suggested a crustal thickness of about 60 km at this site, recent reanalyses of this data suggest that it is thinner, somewhere between about 30 and 45 km.

text: Magnetic field[edit]

text: Compared with that of Earth, the Moon has only a very weak external magnetic field. Other major differences are that the Moon does not currently have a dipolar magnetic field (as would be generated by a geodynamo in its core), and the magnetizations that are present are almost entirely crustal in origin. One hypothesis holds that the crustal magnetizations were acquired early in lunar history when a geodynamo was still operating. The small size of the lunar core, however, is a potential obstacle to this hypothesis. Alternatively, it is possible that on airless bodies such as the Moon, transient magnetic fields could be generated during impact processes. In support of this, it has been noted that the largest crustal magnetizations appear to be located near the antipodes of the largest impact basins. Although the Moon does not have a dipolar magnetic field like Earth's, some of the returned rocks do have strong magnetizations. Furthermore, measurements from orbit show that some portions of the lunar surface are associated with strong magnetic fields.

text: Gallery[edit]

text:
Moon photos

Lunar near side

Lunar far side

Lunar north pole

Lunar south pole