December 28, 2020

A Small Sea of Lava

Originally published June 10, 2011
image by Harald Paleske, Langendorf, Germany

Looking acroos the 200 km expanse of Schickard's floor reveals dramatic shadows and an interrupted surface. Most of the floor is lava that flowed over the original deeper floor, hiding a central peak and wall terraces. Are the few small hills remnants of otherwise buried crater rims, or perhaps hints of a inner ring? Their lack of circularity suggests that the mare ridges
aren't draped over covered craters, so I wonder what forces caused their formation? The larger parallel ridges at upper left are layers of ejecta from the formation of Mare Orientale. The lavas actually flow around these ejecta ridges, showing that the lavas erupted after the formation on the basin. And as everywhere, random impacts cut the surface with mostly small craters.

Chuck Wood

Technical Details
16.01.2011. 16 inch Newton, DMK31, red filter, sharpening with deconvolution

Related Links
Rükl plate 62
Harald's website

Yesterday's LPOD: Prize Winner

Tomorrow's LPOD: Just Another Glorious Image

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