Primer on Nearside Lunar Geology: A Table of 835 Lunar Features by Geologic Era with Wilhems' Charts and Table of Lunar-Earth Analogues fisherka@csolutions.net Org. 12/1/2006 Rev. 12/26/2006

Go to: Summary Table of Geologic Eras | Feature Types with Moon-Earth analogues | List of Features with Geologic Eras by Name | List of Features with Geologic Eras by Lunar Latitude and Longitude | Impact Basin Structural Features | Detail Table of Geologic Eras with example features | Near-term lunar satellite mission websites

Summary and Introduction

An introduction to the geologic history of the nearside of the Moon and finder lists for 835 lunar craters and other features by lunar geologic era are provided based on Don Wilhems' 1987 classic, A Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Survey Paper 1348, Dr. Charles Wood's Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD) image gallery, and USGS-NASA Geologic Atlas of the Moon charts, prepared by NASA as part of the Apollo program. Heavy reliance is made on 12 color geologic maps, Charts 1 through 12, at the back of Wilhems' Geologic History of the Moon in order to illustrate which portions of the nearside Moon relate to several major lunar geologic eras.

Examples of various lunar features are illustrated by linking to images at Wood's LPOD and NASA's Earth Observatory websites. This primer is intended to provide a quick index reference to images of key lunar features to support local amateur public and school star parties on the geologic era of features near the lunar terminator. It also should be considered a prefatory introduction to lunar geology prior to reading more in-depth books such as Wood's The Modern Moon: A Personal View, the introductory chapter to Westfall's Atlas of the Lunar Terminator, or Wilhems' technical Geologic History.

A freeware software alternative to this website is Christian Legrand's and Patrick Chevalley's Version 3.5, Professional Edition, of their Virtual Moon Atlas (VMA), software. The Pro Edition of VMA includes a database program - Datlun - that includes geologic era coding for about 2,800 out of approximately 7,800 nearside features. It was felt that the supplemental reference provided here that covers the same subject matter would have addition educational value to lunar enthusiasts, local astronomy clubs, and school children.

As a boy, I was always attracted to looking at the Moon as a giant three-dimensional map illustrating mountain ranges, valleys, bays, headlands and caldera-like craters. In the modern era, we take aerial and space-based photography of Earth features and detailed U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps - leading aids for visualizing the Earth's geological features - for granted. Before the invention of the airplane and computerized map-making, the Moon was the most easily accessible visualizations of aerial views of such features.

Before the Moon became physically accessible during the Apollo and Soviet Luna exploration era, whether the features of the Moon were created by volcanic or meteor impact processes remained an open question. The principle scientific achievement of the Apollo era was to demonstrate virtually all features on the Moon are of meteor impact orientation.

Today, the beginner looking at the Moon, particularly at the southern highlands, sees an apparent jumble of disorganized, random craters in varying degrees of ruin. There also is some apparent structure to Moon's nearside surface - easily seen in its round mares surrounded by towering mountain ranges. There is a structure and geologic story to face of the nearside Moon. Understanding that structure and how it was created can increase one's appreciation of the Moon and aid in locating and understanding its major structural and aesthetic star party showcase features.

When looking at linked figures and images in this document, in some browers, it may be necessary to click the image a second time in order to view a readable high resolution image. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, a second higher resolution image is available, if after the first click, an image opens that displays a plus sign when the mouse is hovered over the image.

Lunar Geologic Eras

The Earth differs from the Moon in two major qualities. The Earth has plate tectonics; the Moon does not. The Earth has a rock-weathering atmosphere; the Moon does not. As a result, the Earth's surface periodically erases its surface record. For the sea-spreading ocean floor, this occurs on a time scale of 100 to 150 million years; for the continental cratons, weathering may take 500 million years to wear away a mountain range. It is fortunate that we have a Moon without plate tectonics or atmospheric weathering because as a consequence of their absence, the Moon reflects a complete record of major solar system meteor bombardments going back about 3.8 billion years - nearly to the creation of the Earth itself.

Those major meteor bombardment eras - with examples of the major lunar features created in each era - are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Lunar Geologic Eras - Summary | Sort order: Time before present descending

Period	Features	Begins B year before now	Ends B year bef now	Chart - Wilhems (1987)	___________	___________	Features from this era	Crater frequency (N per km^2)
Copernican	Rayed Fresh Craters	0	1.1				Tycho L006 Tycho 2 L006 Messier A L025 Linne 4km dia. Bright Copernican Craters near Gassendi	<7.5 x 10^-4 for >1 km craters on mares
Eratosthenian	Non-Rayed Fresh Craters	1.1	3.2				Theophilus L008 Marius Hills L042	<7.5 x 10^-4 to <2.5 x 10^-3 for >1 km craters on mares
Imbrian	Maria Impact Basins	3.2	3.85				Mare Imbrium
	Upper Imbrian	3.2	3.84				Posidonius L020	<2.5 x 10^-3 to <2.2 x 10^-2 for >1 km craters on mares <2.8 x 10^-5 for >20km craters
	Lower Imbrian	3.84	3.85				Petavius L016	<2.2 - 4.8 x 10^-2 to <2.2 x 10^-2 for >1 km craters in basins <1.8 - 3.3 x 10^-5 for >20km craters
Nectarian	Maria Impact Basins	3.85	3.92				Clavius L009	<2.3 - 8.8 x 10^-5 for >20km craters
pre-Nectarian	Terrae	3.92	4.55				Schickard L039	>7.0 x 10^-5 for >20km craters
pre-Imbrian	another name including both the Nectarian and pre-Nectarian	3.85	4.55
	Era color coding

As can be seen in the preceding table, much of the near-side face of the Moon was reshaped in the lower-Imbrian era by heavy bombardments that created the major nearside mares. (Wilhems 1987, pp. 190, 245, 278).

Aside from the lower Imbrian bombardment, craters on the face of the near-side of the Moon are the result of processes working over geologic time scales and not relatively heavy, short bombardments. Even the heavy higher-rate Nectarian and lower Imbrian bombardments occurred over a one-half billion year period. Figure 2. The cratering rate for each geologic era is shown Figures 1 and 2. For craters larger than 20 kilometers, the present cratering rating is about one-fifth estimated for Imbrian times. For small craters less than 1 kilometer in diameter, the current rate is one-thousandth an estimated Imbrian rate.

Figure 1 - Figure 13.13B, Cratering frequency by time. In Chap. 13 in Wilhems, Don. 1987. A Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Survey Paper 1348

Figure 2 - Figure 8.16, Cratering frequency by time, Nectarian and Imbrian eras. In Chap. 13 in Wilhems, Don. 1987. A Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Survey Paper 1348

The nearside has many large mares; a feature type almost absent from the farside. The farside surface contains a larger percentage of older terrian.

Figure 3 - Apollo 16 photograph AS16-3021 of the lunar farside courtesy of NASA

Figure 4 - Farside lunar geologic map. Plate 12B in Wilhems (1987).

That pattern is probably the result of lunar tidal locking. After creation, the Moon became tidally locked such that the Moon rotates at speed that keeps the same side always pointing towards the Earth. The gravity differential caused the Moon to become egg-shaped and the lunar crust to be thicker (50km) on the farside and thinner (12km) on the nearside. Although both sides of the Moon received large body impacts, on the thinner nearside we see major basin and mare impact structures where lava in the young Moon's mantle could reach the surface through impact-related fractures in the lunar crust.

Impact basins and nearside lunar structure

Figure 5 - Plate 5A, Structural Features [Nearside] from Wilhems (1987)

That almost all lunar features are the result of basin impact processes and not volcanism was the principle scientific result of the Apollo era explorations. In the basin impact paradigm, small planetesimals spiraled into the early Moon's surface and impacted at a very low-angle, probably less than 45 degrees but more than 15 degrees. Wood, Modern Moon at 94. (Meteors that impact at less than 45 degrees being to form increasingly non-spherical craters. Wood at 93.) As a consequence, most of the major nearside mares are all slightly elliptical and are not circular. Upon impact, the early Moon's crust is fractured, circular mountain ranges and circular impact fractures were created around the boundaries of mares and tangent to the impact center. Basalt from the Moon's then molten interior flooded out. Rising magma caused the center of the newly formed mares of the impact basins to rise. As they partially cooled, the mares collapsed. This caused pre-existing large craters on the rim of the impact zone to tilt towards the center of the impact. With sufficient tilting, mare lava could overtop and/or breach the crater rim, thus, flooding the pre-existing crater's floor with mare lava. Alternatively, subsurface heating of the lunar crust from the basin-sized impact could underflow beneath the crater and rise through a now impact-fractured pre-existing crater floor. As these newly flooded and crater floors cooled, their now mare-like flat crater floors fractured. Large scale cooling fractures at the rim boundary create rille systems that are tangent to the impact center of the mare. Within the mares, cooling stresses and submerged impact structures caused wrinkle ridges, straight faults and rilles to form on mare surfaces. During the cooling process, sheet lava would flow from straight rilles or from small craters. At some of the vent points, lava flowed through sinuous rilles. The basin impact model explains the distribution of rilles and wrinkle ridges mapped by Wilhems in Figure 5. Images of specific lunar features that illustrate these key impact related structures are listed the following table:

One type of feature, the distribution of which is not fully explained by the basin impact theory, is lunar domes. Wood, Modern Moon at 62-63. Domes are small volcano-like features generally less than 500 meters tall that are believed to be similar to lava domes or shield volcanoes on the Earth. Examples of these features are provided in Table 3 in the following section. Westfall (2000) (at 54) feels at least the larger domes fields, like the Hortensius Domes, appear to be distributed clustered around the edges of the mares.

Feature Types - Lunar Morphology with Earth Analogues

"Analogue morphology" means for the purposes of the following table, landforms that are similar in appearance, but not necessarily created by the same geologic process. Analogies are different from homologies that are both similar in appearance and cause. For example, a pit and rille on the Moon may be caused by a small meteor impact and subsequent subsurface melting. On Earth, a similar landform may be caused by a small volcano. On the Moon, a long scarp like Rupes Altai is associated with a large basin impact; on the Earth, a scarp like the Niagra Escarpment is associated with geochemical processes. In general, the geologic processes that form lunar features are not the same forces that create similar terrestrial landforms.

While the comparative appreciation of the morphology of Earth and lunar features is instructive, care should not be taken to attribute volcanic causation to many lunar features. That almost all lunar features are the result of basin impact processes was the hard-won knowledge result of the Apollo program. For essays about the pre-Apollo views on the Moon, see Fielder (1961). In this regard, the following table of lunar features provides a science education launch point to discuss basic logical reasoning regarding proof of causation.

Using the USGS-NASA Geologic Atlas charts and era assignments in Wilhems' Geologic History of the Moon, geologic eras were assigned to 835 lunar features. Tables sorted by name and lunar latitude and longitude are provided. The "Table of Features with Geologic Eras by Lunar Latitude and Longitude" can be imported into a spreadsheet, like Microsoft Excel. In Microsoft Excel, simply paste the url of the table into the "Open | File" dialogue. Excel's sort ( Data | Sort ) and/or auto-data filter feature ( Data | Filter | Autofilter ) can be used to drill-down to those features that are near the lunar terminator on a particular night. Using such a spreadsheet and once the longitude of the lunar terminator is known, star party tours by lunar geologic eras can be quickly created for a particular night.

Color of the Moon

The Moon has color; we just do not see them because the reflected light of the Moon is too dim to trigger color receptors in the human eye. (At night during the full Moon, you see objects in black-and-white.) A film or digital camera accumulates sufficient light to trigger color sensors on film or on the electronic receptor of a digital camera - as seen in the following LPOD images:

• Wood, C.A. 9/1/2006. Black and White and Color All Over. LPOD (10.6 day old Moon in color by Milton Aupperle)
• Wood, C. 1/28/2004. Outrageous Lunar Colors. LPOD (Image by Filipe Alves)
• Wood, C.A. 3/7/2004. Color Moon Map. LPOD. (Image by Filipe Alves)

The color and brightness of the surface of the Moon is a result of its chemical composition and fading caused by micro-meteor bombardment over a geologic time scale.

Relatively fresh craters - Copernican craters that are "only" less then a billion years old - are surrounded by bright ejecta rays. The high reflectance - or albedo - of these rays is the result of the glass crystalline content of the ejected material and the chemical composition of underlying mare bedrock. Fresh bedrock material is dispersed by a meteor's impact and the shock of the impact turns a portion of the bedrock into a crystalline glass. This crystalline glass has a high albedo. The bedrock typically is covered by a 5 or 6 meter layer of darker lunar soil - called regolith - which has a lower content of crystalline glass and a lower albedo. Wilhems (1987) at 95.

Micro-meteors and the harsh space environment transform this fresh bedrock and its high-reflectance crystalline glass into darker regolith. Today, the Moon is continually bombarded by small meteorites and meteorite sand grains, as recently popularized by reports regarding a Nov. 7, 2005 and a May 2, 2006 meteor impact on the Moon captured by Earth-based NASA robotic patroller telescopes at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Such small impacts have been regularly captured for many years by amateurs, including by members of the Meteoritic Impact Search Program of the Lunar Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO). One result of this continual micobombardment is the creation of the fine powdery lunar soil - the regolith - seen in a famous photograph of Buz Aldrin's first bootprint on the surface of the Moon. The continual microbombardment churns the lunar surface soil causing changes in its chemical composition and brightness. A second result of continual micrometer bombardment is the gradual fading of bright crater rays as seen surrounding the crater Tycho. The broad-scale colors seen on the Moon's surface in Filipe Alves's image of the Moon - the blue mares and the orange and orange-reddish highlands - are the result of chemical composition of the underlying source materials and the relative fraction of titanium, aluminum and iron in each region.

Figure 6 - Courtesy of NASA. Apollo 11 bootprint on the Moon

Table 4. Summary of colors and spectral types from Wilhems (1987) (pp. 96-99)

Color	Description
Blue	"Ti-rich, spectrally blue lavas form at least half of Mare Tranquillitatis, the adjoining border of Serenitatis, the lobate flows of Mare Imbrium, central Mare Humorum, and much of Oceanus Procellarum. . . .."
Red	."Red spectral classes, thought to be lowest in Ti content, are concentrated in Lacus Somniorum, Mare Frigoris, Sinus Roris, and northern Mare Imbrium; that is, they occur in diverse settings over the north half of the Procellarum basin.."
Red - mISP	"Red spectral class mISP forms extensive areas in central Serenitatis and the outer trough of western Procellarum.."
Orange	"Class hDWA occurs at several mare margins and fills most of Mare Vaporum. On the color-difference photographs, its color appears to be intermediate between red and blue and has been called 'orange' . . .""
Orange-red - mIG	"Orange or (partly) red spectral class mIG- covers much of the area west of the central meridian and south of the strong blue-red association in Mare Imbrium. Apollo 12 landed within this belt. This class also forms much of Mare Crisium and Mare Fecunditatis. . . . . Orange spectral classes mBG-, characteristic of Mare Nectaris, and LBG-, common among the northern very red units, also are probably Al-rich. . . . . One interpretation of the orbital geochemistry is that Maria Smythii, Fecunditatis, and Crisium are all Al-rich. . . . "

Figure 7 - Table 5.1, Remotely Sensed Properties of Mare Units. In Color, Chap. 5 (pp. 96-99) in Wilhems, Don. 1987. A Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Survey Paper 1348

All of these chemical changes occur in an oxygen-free space environment. Apollo astronauts report that once back in their lander module, fresh moon dust has a burnt smell. But after lunar rocks are returned to the Earth, they are odorless. Although the reason for the smell is not known - one explanation for the smell is that metals and other compounds in the soil oxidize on their first exposure to air.

Use of the USGS-NASA Geologic Atlas of the Moon is complicated by the dense colors and features on the charts. Not all satellite craters are indicated on the charts. Typically, effective use of these NASA Apollo era lunar geologic charts requires supplemental reference to both a good lunar atlas, like Rükl's Atlas of the Moon and U.S. Air Force-NASA Lunar Aeronautical Charts (LAC). This is particularly true when trying to find smaller craters less than 20 kilometers in diameter.

Chart numbers listed in the "Table of Features with Geologic Eras by Name" and the "Table of Features with Geologic Eras by Lunar Latitude and Longitude", refer to LAC chart numbers and not the geologic chart numbers. An index cross-reference map between the "LAC" chart numbers and the geologic atlas charts is provided at the main LAC page. The duplicate "I" chart numbers for the geologic charts are not listed in the geologic era reference table provided here, since both the LAC and geologic charts cover the same area.

Future exploration

Table 14.2 in Wilhems' Geologic History suggests 18 supplemental sites for sample return missions in order to better calibrate the absolute ages of surface rocks. The sites include the South Pole-Aitken Basin massifs, the Nectarian mare floor, floor melt in Copernicus, a farside mare and the lava dome Gruithuisen gamma. In 2004, NASA announced in its Vision for Space Report a return-to-the-Moon initiative. In 2006, the U.S. National Academy of the Sciences issued a recommendation - the Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon Report - that suggested targeted science missions for the NASA return to the Moon program. Recommended activities were similar to Wilhems' 1987 recommendations: (1) return a sample from the South-Aitken Basin, (2) maximize the diversity of lunar samples, filling in rock sample gaps from the Apollo era explorations, and (3) investigation of more recently discovered, potential ice deposits at the lunar poles.

In addition to prior remote sensing missions like Clementine (1994), Lunar Prospector (1998) and SMART-1 (2006), the following near term (2007-2010) remote sensing missions are planned by the United States, Japan, China and India:

* - Except as to Lunar Recon. Orbiter, quoted from NASA. 1/24/2005. International Participation in Lunar Exploration. (Slide Presentation). http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/apio/pdf/moon/08_international_kirkham.pdf

Development

Wilhems (1987) was reviewed and a table of approximately 190 lunar geologic eras assigned to lunar features was created. The USGS-NASA Geologic Atlas of the Moon charts were reviewed and the geologic eras for approximately 645 features were extracted and added to a reference table containing a total of 835 lunar features.

The reference table codes from the USGS-NASA Geologic Atlas charts are based on the geologic eras assigned in those pre-Apollo exploration charts. In the early 1960's Geologic Atlas charts, the Pre-Nectarian and Nectarian eras are combined into one era - the Pre-Imbrian. Based on later Apollo exploration lunar sample returns, the Pre-Imbrian era was later subdivided in Wilhems (1987) into the Pre-Nectarian and the Nectarian eras.

In the reference table provided here, all geologic era assignments extracted from the Geologic Atlas charts for the upper and lower Imbrian eras were assigned a single group coding - the Imbrian era.

This review and extraction process occurred during October and November 2006. On November 6, 2006, Christian Legrand and Patrick Chevalley issued Version 3.5, Professional Edition, of their Virtual Moon Atlas (VMA), software. The Pro Edition of VMA includes a database program - Datlun - described above. Since this project was substantially completed, it was decided to distribute it for its supplemental educational value to lunar enthusiasts.

Disclaimers

This note is amateur astronomer work product. Corrections to any errors are welcomed and appreciated.

References and further reading:

When purchasing any used or new books on this list through Amazon, using the Amazon link at Dr. Charles Wood's Lunar Picture of the Day (LPOD) contributes part of the purchase price to supporting the LPOD website.

• Geology

USGS-NASA. ____. A Geologic Atlas of the Moon. (Out-of-print geologic maps web redistributed by the Lunar Planetary Institute) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/usgs/ and http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/usgs/

Fielder, G. 1961. Structure of the Moon's Surface. (Pre-Apollo era views about lunar geology). Pergamon Press. New York.

Hartmann, W.K. and Wood, C.A. 1971. Moon: Origin and Evolution of Multi-Ring Basins http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1971Moon....3....3H

Heiken, Grant H. et al (eds). 1991. Lunar Sourcebook: A User's Guide to the Moon. Cambridge Univ. Press. (Out-of-Print publication web distributed by LPI) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books.shtml

Masursky, H., Colton, G.W., El-Baz, F. 1978. Apollo over the Moon: A View from Orbit. (NASA SP-362) http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-362/contents.htm

NASA. Nov. 6, 2006. Bizarre Lunar Orbits. (Mascons) http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/06nov_loworbit.htm

Schultz, Peter H. 1976. Moon Morphology: Interpretations based on Lunar Orbiter Photography. Univ. of Texas Press.

Spudis, P.D. and Bussey, D.B. 2006. Clementine Explores the Moon. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/clem2nd/

Westfall, John E. 2000. Table 2.1. Lunar Geologic Time Scale. In The Moon's Surface Features. Chapter 2. In Atlas of the Lunar Terminator. Cambridge Univ. Press.

Westfall, John E. 2000. Atlas of the Lunar Terminator. Cambridge Univ. Press.

Wilhems, Don. 1987. A Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Survey Paper 1348 http://cps.earth.northwestern.edu/GHM/raw_scans.html

Wood, C.A. 2004. The Modern Moon: A Personal View. Sky Publishing. http://www.lpod.org

Wood, C.A. & Anderson, L. 1978. New morphometric data for fresh lunar types. 1978LPSC....9.3669W http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1978LPSC....9.3669W

• Maps and Nomenclature

Bussey, B. and Spudis, P.D. 2004. The Clementine Atlas of the Moon. - U.S.G.S. Map-A-Planet Online applet http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/PDS/public/explorer/html/moonpick.htm

Lunar Planetary Instit. Lunar Atlases Online http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_atlases/

Lunar Planetary Instit. chart catalogue http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/

Rükl, A. 2004 (2ed). Atlas of the Moon. Sky Publishing.

USGS-NASA. ____. A Geologic Atlas of the Moon. (Out-of-print geologic maps web redistributed by the Lunar Planetary Institute) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/usgs/ and http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/usgs/

U.S. Air Force. ____. Lunar Aeronautical Charts. (LAC). http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LAC/

USGS. 2005. Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/FeatureTypes2.jsp?system=Earth&body=Moon&systemID=3&bodyID=11

USGS. 2006. Map-A-Planet - Clementine 790nm Baseline Images - Online Web Applet http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/maps.html

Viscardy, Georges. 1985. Atlas-guide photographique de la lune: ouvrage de référence ŕ haute résolution. Masson. ISBN/ISSN/EAN : 2-225-81090-7

• Observing Lists

Astronomical League. 2006. The Lunar Club Observing List. http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/lunar/lunar2.html

Ash Observatory. 2006. The Lunar 100 List (List and images). http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeed81b/lunar1001_50.html

NextStar50Club. 2005. NextStar Club Lunar 50 List. (Web document) http://www.nexstarsite.com/nexstar50club.htm

Rükl, A. 2004 (2ed). The Rükl 50. In Atlas of the Moon. Sky Publishing.

Wood, C.A. 2006. The Lunar 100. Sky & Telescope http://skytonight.com/observing/objects/moon/3308811.html

• Software

Chevalley, Patrick and Legrand, Christian. 2006. Virtual Moon Atlas. (Software) http://www.astrosurf.com/avl/UK_index.html

• Feature photos - Moon

Douglass, E. (Lunar Planetary Instit.) 2003. Consolidated Lunar Atlas. (Web document) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/cla/

Fisher, Kurt A. (amateur). 2006. Index to Lunar Picture of the Day. (By feature name) http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/plan/LPODIdx/LPODIdxProject.html

Hager, M.A. et al. (Lunar Planetary Instit.) 2005. Apollo Image Atlas. (Web document) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/

NASA. 2006. Image Gallery. (Image archive) http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html

NASA. 2006. The Apollo Gallery. (Image archive) http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/index.html

Teague, K. 2006. The Project Apollo Archive. (Over 2,200 scanned photographs, most taken in lunar orbit or on the surface, by Apollo lunar missions) http://www.apolloarchive.com/

Wood, C.A. 2006. Lunar Picture of the Day. (Website) http://www.lpod.org

Wood, C.A. 2006. Lunar Picture of the Day Coppermine User Image Gallery. (Website) http://lpod.org/coppermine/

• Feature photos - Earth

JPL/NASA. 2006. NASA Planetary Photojournal. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html

NASA. 2006. Earth Observatory (Image server) http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/

NASA. 2006. Visible Earth. (Image server) http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

NASA. 2006. Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth. (Image server) http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/default.htm

Short, Sr. N. & Blair, Jr., R.W. 1986. Geomorphology from Space. NASA. (Out-of-print book; web distributed) http://geoinfo.amu.edu.pl/wpk/geos/GEO_HOME_PAGE.html

• Earth and Solar System Analogue Features

  Barringer Crater Co. 2006. Barringer Meteor Crater [Meteor Crater, Arizona]. (Website) http://www.barringercrater.com/

  Clark, M. (Whitepeak Obs.). 2006. Walking the Moon on the Earth: Lava Tube, Ape Cave, WA. (Website) http://cityastronomy.com/apecave.htm

  Clark, M. (Whitepeak Obs.). 2006. Walking the Moon on the Earth: Newberry, Oregon Geologic Fieldtrip. (Website) http://cityastronomy.com/newberry-fieldtrip1.htm

  Hamilton, Carlton. _____. Terrestrial impact craters. (Gallery). In Views of the Solar System. (Website) http://www.solarviews.com/eng/tercrate.htm#views

  Hamilton, Carlton. _____. Isla Isabella Volcano. In Terrestrial volcanoes. (Gallery). In Views of the Solar System. (Website) (slumped crater walls) http://solarviews.com/eng/tervolc.htm#views. Although Isla Isabella is a terrestrial volcano without a lunar analogue, the crater rim illustrates a slumped or failed rim similar to a slumped lunar crater rim.

  JPL/NASA, Near Earth Object Program. _____. Image of Aorounga Crater: A Possible String of Impact Craters, Chad. (Webpage) (Catena). http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/images/chad.html

  Kanbur, Z. , Louie, J. N. et al. 2000. Seismic Reflection Study of Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, 105(E4):9489-9505 http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/papers/dome/

  Koeberl, C. & Sharpton, V.L. 2001. Terrestrial Impact Craters. (Slide set) LPI Contrib. No. 1083 (Online and Hardcopy) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/craters/

  Louie, J.N., Chavez-Perez, S., & Plank G. Impact Deformation at Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, Revealed by Seismic Profiles. http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/dome/95agu/95agu.html

  Mouginis-Mark, P. 1993. Volcanic Features of Hawaii and Other Worlds. Lunar Planetary Instit. (Online and Hardcopy) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/hawaiivolcanoes/index.shtml

  Owen, Doug, National Park Service. ____. Geology of the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. (lava tubes and rilles) http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/geology/geology.htm

  Phillips, Nicole. 2006. Volcanoes of the Eastern Sierra Nevada: Geology and Natural Heritage of the Long Valley Caldera. (Webpage) (domes) http://www.indiana.edu/~sierra/papers/2003/Phillips.html and http://www.iub.edu/~sierra/papers/2003/Phillips.pdf

  Planetary and Space Science Centre, Univ. of New Brunswick. 2006. Earth Impact database. http://www.unb.ca/passc/ImpactDatabase/index.html

  Schenk, P.M., Gwynn, D. and Tutor, J. 200_. The Solar System in 3-D. (Slide set) LPI Contribution No. 942 (Online and hardcopy) http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/3dsolarsystem/index.shtml

  Short, Sr. N. & Blair, Jr., R.W. 1986. Geomorphology from Space. NASA. (Out-of-print book; web distributed) http://geoinfo.amu.edu.pl/wpk/geos/GEO_HOME_PAGE.html

  USGS, Cascades Volcano Observatory. 2006. Lava Domes, Volcanic Domes, Composite Domes. (Webpage). http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Domes/description_lava_dome.html, including

  Katmai Volcano Dome in Alaska. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Imgs/Jpg/Katmai/novarupta.jpg

  U.S. National Park Service. 2006. Craters of the Moon National Monument Website (lava tubes and rilles) http://www.nps.gov/crmo/naturescience/index.htm

  U.S. National Park Service. 2001. Activity 1, Classroom Activities in Geologic Investigation at Craters of the Moon [National Monument]. (Webpage). http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/visitac1.html , including

  Snake River Plain Basaltic Flow. (Mare flow analogue) http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/srp-f3.jpg

  Snake River Plain Straight Rift with Cinder Cone. (Straight rille analogue) http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/srp-r3.jpg

  Slot Vent, Big Southern Butte. (Fossa analogue). http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/srp-v1.jpg

  Bear Crater. (Sinuous rille analogue). http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/srp-v2.jpg

  Pit Crater and Collapsed Lava Tube. (Sinuous rille analogue). http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/srp-t3.jpg

  Lava Pressure Ridge on Snake River Plan. (Mare wrinkle ridge analogue) http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/srp-t2.jpg

  Instructor's Guide http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/visit/visitres.html

  Univ. of Texas. 2006. Grace (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) Satellite (Website) (Earth's gravitational anomalies) http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/

  Wickman, Robert. ____. Volcanism on the Moon. In Volcano World. (Webpage) http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/lunar/Overview.html

  Wickman, Robert. ____. Undara, Queensland, Australia Volcanic Tube. In Volcano World. (An Earth dorsa ridge analogue) http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/australia/undara/undara.html

  Wickman, Robert. ____. Lava Tubes. In Volcano World. (Rille analogues) http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/lunar/sin_rilles/lava_tubes.html

• Color and the Surface of the Nearside Mares

Wood, C.A. 9/1/2006. Black and White and Color All Over. LPOD (10.6 day old Moon in color by Aupperle, Milton) http://www.lpod.org/?m=20060901

Wood, C.A. 3/7/2004. Color Moon Map. LPOD. (Image by Alves, Filipe) http://www.lpod.org/archive/archive/2004/03/LPOD-2004-03-07.htm

Wood, C.A. 2/22/2006. Magical Bi-color Moon. LPOD.(Image by Alves, Filipe) http://www.lpod.org/?m=20060222

Table 5.1, Remotely Sensed Properties of Mare Units. In Color, Chap. 5 (pp. 96-99) in Wilhems, Don. 1987. A Geologic History of the Moon, USGS Survey Paper 1348 http://cps.earth.northwestern.edu/GHM/raw_scans.html

Pieters, C.M. 1977. Characterization of lunar mare basalt. LSCP 8(1):1037-1048 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1977LPSC....8.1037P

Pieters, C.M. 1978. Mare basalt types on the front side of the moon: A summary of spectral reflectance data. LPSCP 9(3):2825-2849 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1978LPSC....9.2825P

Revision history

• 2006/12/20 - Added albedo Earth analogues to Table 3.
• 2006/12/06 - Miscellaneous proof reading corrections.
• 2006/12/05 - Added more crater floor and peak types from Schultz (1976) to Table 3. Added M. Clark (Whitepeak Obs.) Oregon and Washington terresterial feature images.
• 2006/12/04 - Corrected description of Virtual Moon Atlas.

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No copyright is claimed as to any original materials on this web document. All original content by this author is released to the public domain.

This website makes extensive use of external content links, particularly to Dr. Charles Wood's LPOD site and to individual amateur images incorporated at the LPOD site that are subject to copyright protection. No claim to copyright is made as to these linked external sources or any other external linked reference source. All external, linked reference sources are identified by hover boxes labeled "Click to link to external content".

This website incorporates several reproductions of plates and graphs from Wilhems' 1987 Geologic History book. That publication was prepared by the U.S. Geological Service and as a publication of the United States is not subject to copyright and is part of the public domain.

Linking to M. Clark's Whitepeak Observatory images of terresterial features is by permission.

Prepared by K. Fisher fisherka@csolutions.net Rev. 12/26/2006