May 18, 2006

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Bird's Feet and Droppings?

Thomson-AS15
image from Apollo 15-87-11724

Goddard is a lava-floored crater ruin with nearby swirls on the edge of Mare Marginis. But this isn’t Goddard – it fooled me. Its the look-alike 117 km wide crater Thomson on the farside Mare Ingenii. The mare-covered surface looks like it has been walked across by a triangle-footed creature. Look closely and notice that the triangles point toward the upper right. These are bird’s foot style secondary craters probably from a young impact crater, but I don’t know which one - the farside is still alien to me! The swirls in Ingenii are like Reiner Gamma - surface deposits without any topography at all. Ingenii is exactly opposite to the Serenitatis basin – for some reason this swirl group and the Marginis one are antipodal to impact basins.

Chuck Wood

Technical Details:
This spectacular Apollo 15 image is one of the 2200 recently added to Kipp Teague’s Project Apollo Archive.

Related Links:
Clementine Atlas plate 119

Yesterday's LPOD: A Fault of Consequence

Tomorrow's LPOD: How Can You Be Tranquil When So Much is Happening?


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