February 10, 2011

A Basin Quest

image by Philippe Tosi, FRANCE-Nîmes

Near the middle of this scene is an ill-formed smooth area, not as dark as the Lacus Spei mare material at upper right.
The light-hued material has a name, Lacus Temporis, and occupies the central area of a 350 km wide depression. At
least that is what LPOD reported in 2004, and there have been little additional analyses of this putative small impact
basin. But Harry Hiesinger and his crater-counting colleagues have estimated that the lavas of Lacus Temporis erupted
between 3.62 and 3.74 b.y. ago. I imagine that the new LRO topographic data can much better define the size and depth
of the supposed basin that in 2006 was defined by the relatively coarse Clementine data. I imagine that by tomorrow
LPOD readers/contributers will have derived new information about this possible depression. Is there a Temporis Basin?

Chuck Wood

Technical Details
9 Feb, 2011. C.14 + DMK camera/7.5 img/s + registax 5 + CS2

Related Links
Rükl plate 15

Yesterday's LPOD: Lightening the Shadows

Tomorrow's LPOD: How Old is That Mare?

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