October 6, 2021

Non-Concentric Basin Scarp

Originally published December 7, 2011
north to the left image by George Tarsoudis, Greece

The more images you take, the more you see on the Moon. George discovered a faint trace of something like a valley or a fault in the line joining the craters Piccolomini and Brenner. The feature is a scarp with the high side on the east (top) looking like normal highland terrain. On the west the surface within 10 km of the scarp seems like a series of small depressions, some having smooth fill. Bill Hartmann and Gerard Kuiper noticed this about 50 years ago when they recognized impact basins and their systems of concentric and radial patterns. The bigger scarp cut by Piccolomini is the continuation of the Altai Scarp rim of the Nectaris Basin. The unnamed Piccolomini-Brenner scarp is radial to the center of Nectaris and thus somehow tied to that basin's formation. This could be a basin secondary crater chain, like the Rheita Valley, but the asymetric edges - a scarp on one side and nothing on the other - suggests that the feature may be radial fault, similar to ones that cut through the Apennine rim of the Imbrium Basin.

Chuck Wood
70 years ago the world was at war, but now, our group of lunatics in many lands share and admire each others images and skills. It is good that the Moon helps us be friends.

Technical Details
Dec 2, 2011, 11:04 UT. Newtonian 10 inch @f/6.3, camera Unibrain fire-i 785, filter Red, barlow 3X.

Related Links
Rükl plate 68
www.lunar-captures.com

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