Apollo Basin: Mare in a Sea of Highlands

Image Data

This high-resolution LROC image shows part of the floor of the Apollo Basin, an enormous (538 km diameter) double-ringed impact crater in the southern hemisphere of the far side of the Moon. This image shows part of the boundary between what appears to be two lava flow units within the volcanic mare deposits on the crater's floor. The relatively sharp boundary between the topographically higher lavas on the right side of the image and the lower ones on the left reveals layers, suggesting that multiple volcanic events were involved in forming some of the isolated volcanic plateaus seen within the otherwise uniform crater floor lava flows. Both the high and low materials here are heavily covered in impact craters, indicating that these lavas, like much of the Moon's surface, are ancient. Many boulders can also be seen shedding out of the upper layers and eroding down onto the lower deposits. This image is 880 meters wide, and north is up. Part of NAC frame M114953774LE

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