The coupled thermal-dynamical evolution of the Earth-Moon system is modeled. The lunar orbit is assumed noncircular and inclined to Earth's equator plane. Solid planet dissipation in the Earth and Moon is assumed to occur by temperature- and frequency-dependent solid friction. The dissipative response of Earth's oceans is represented as an equilibrium ocean with constant phase lag. Subsolidus convection cools the Earth and Moon, removing primordial, radioactive, and (in the Moon) tidal heating. A model without oceanic dissipation results in the Moon moving out to about 50 RE (Earth radii) in less than about 1.5 b.y. Thereafter, dynamic evolution slows considerably because the Earth has cooled and become less dissipative. A model that includes oceanic dissipation shows that about 700 m.y. of large oceanic dissipation (equivalent phase lag equals 1/11) is required to move the Moon to 60 RE. In one interpretation of this result, consistent with variable ocean basin configuration, several episodes of large oceanic dissipation have occurred since the end of the Archean with a cumulative time span of about 700 m.y. In our model, about 90% of the lunar angular momentum received from the Earth is the result of solid friction. Uncertainties in the thermal evolution and dissipation law preclude an unequivocal partitioning of tidal dissipation into solid Earth and oceanic parts. Our model likely underestimates solid Earth dissipation, however, and so emphasizes the proposition that solid Earth tidal friction might have been the main energy sink in the Earth-Moon system and that oceanic dissipation may have been relatively much less important than solid Earth dissipation over geologic time. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1989