A rille is a long and narrow valley on the Moon and appears to have been formed by subsidence or collapse of surface materials along a crustal fracture (Baldwin 1968), which could be ascribed to the thermal and mechanical erosion, construction, and volatiles between the basement surface and a surficial permafrost layer …
What causes rilles on the moon?
– Rille is German for “groove” and is the word used to describe long slim depressions in the surface of the Moon. – Some theories on what causes the rilles are lava channels along the surface, and collapsed tubes that carried lava underneath the surface.
What are rilles and what is thought to be their origin?
rille, any of various valleys or trenches on the surface of the Moon. The term was introduced by early telescopic observers—probably by the German astronomer Johann Schröter about 1800—to denote such lunar features. The word rima (from Latin, “fissure”) is often used for the same kind of features.
How are rilles and faults formed?
Most linear rilles are believed to represent tectonic faulting and can be used to determine stratigraphic relationships on a surface. … Some rilles, such as Vallis Schroteri, were formed by volcanic eruptions. Other rilles, such as Rima Ariadaeus, are believed to be faults that formed as a result of tectonic activity.Are there rilles on Earth?
Sinuous rilles resemble winding river valleys on Earth. They are thought to be similar to flow channels created by lava flows on Earth, but the shape of these lunar valleys is more meandering, perhaps because ancient lunar lavas were much less viscous than those now known on Earth.
Are Highlands older than Maria?
Compared to geology of the Lunar Highlands: ● Lunar highlands have more impact craters than the mare. So, the highlands are older. They are the same age as the highlands because both features were formed by the hardening of lava.
What are the rilles found on the moon quizlet?
What are lunar rilles. Lunar rilles are river-like valleys and were most likely formed when lava flowed on the lunar surface.
How did Luna form?
What is most widely accepted today is the giant-impact theory. It proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of Mars. The debris from this impact collected in an orbit around Earth to form the Moon.Which produces an impact crater?
Craters produced by the collision of a meteorite with the Earth (or another planet or moon) are called impact craters. The high-speed impact of a large meteorite compresses, or forces downward, a wide area of rock. The pressure pulverizes the rock.
How old are Rilles on the Moon?Results indicate that the distribution of ages of rille formation is highly correlated with the emplacement ages of mare units, where the majority of rilles are observed to have formed between 3.0 Ga and 3.8 Ga ago, though some of the features associated with the Aristarchus Plateau may have formed as recently as 1.0 …
Article first time published onHow do mountains form on the moon?
Virtually all of its mountains are the result of impacts by asteroids in the distant past. … When these impacted the moon and planets, they formed craters far larger than the ones we see today, forming the lunar maria and leaving their rims to form lunar mountain ranges.
What is the dominant feature of the lunar surface?
The dominant features of the lunar surface are the old heavily cratered highlands and the younger basaltic maria, mostly filling the large impact basins (see Figs. 1 and 3). There is a general scarcity of tectonic features on the Moon, in great contrast to the dynamically active Earth.
What is a flooded crater?
They were most likely caused by lava oozing rapidly out of cracks in the planet’s crust. … You can see some great examples of “ghost craters”, once-deep craters now filled nearly to the brim with flood basalt lava, in quite a few places on our moon.
Are there canyons on the Moon?
Although Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is surrounded by a thick, hazy atmosphere, Cornell astronomers have revealed that the moon’s terrain features deep, steep-sided canyons filled with liquid hydrocarbons.
What are moon rays?
Lunar rays are filamentous, high-albedo deposits occurring radial or subradial to impact craters. The nature and origin of lunar rays have long been the subjects of major controversies. … “Immaturity” rays are bright due to the presence of fresh, high-albedo material.
What is the largest impact crater on Mercury?
Caloris Basin — Impact Site This is one of the largest impact basins in the solar system and the largest feature on Mercury. The Caloris Basin is 1300 kilometers (810 miles) in diameter.
Why does the Moon have a layer of powdery soil on its surface?
Why does the Moon have a layer of “powdery soil” on its surface? It exists because the Moon accreted from powdery material after a giant impact blasted the Earth. It is the result of countless tiny impacts by small particles striking the Moon. It is made by the same processes that make powdery sand on Earth.
Why is the Moon's surface cratered but the Earth's is not?
Why is the Moon’s surface cratered but the Earth’s is not? Earth’s impact craters have been mostly obliterated by erosion and plate tectonics. … the Moon lacks sufficient gravity to retain an atmosphere.
What element is the Moon made of?
By atomic composition, the most abundant element found on the Moon is oxygen. It composes 60% of the Moon’s crust by weight, followed by 16-17% silicon, 6-10% aluminum, 4-6% calcium, 3-6% magnesium, 2-5% iron, and 1-2% titanium. All other elements are present in amounts very much smaller than 1% by weight.
What are Moon Highlands?
Glossary. highlands: the lighter, heavily cratered regions of the Moon, which are generally several kilometers higher than the maria. mare: (plural: maria) Latin for “sea;” the name applied to the dark, relatively smooth features that cover 17% of the Moon’s surface.
What are black spots on moon?
Those spots are called maria, from the Latin word for sea, because early astronomers mistakenly thought they were lunar seas (they’re actually volcanic plains). The smooth and dark maria cover 17 percent of the surface of the moon. Almost all of them are visible from Earth.
How old is the Moon?
The most widely accepted origin explanation posits that the Moon formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth, out of the debris from a giant impact between the planet and a hypothesized Mars-sized body called Theia.
How was meteor crater formed?
Forty-nine thousand years ago, a large 30 to 50 meter diameter iron asteroid impacted the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona. The resulting massive explosion excavated 175 million tons of rock, forming a crater nearly a mile wide and 570 feet deep. (Click here to learn about the geology of the region).
How are craters formed on the surface of the Moon?
Craters on the Moon are caused by asteroids and meteorites colliding with the lunar surface. … Unlike the Earth, the Moon has no atmosphere to protect itself from impacting bodies. It also has very little geologic activity (like volcanoes) or weathering (from wind or rain) so craters remain intact from billions of years.
Why do meteorites create craters?
Craters are round, bowl-shaped depressions surrounded by a ring. They’re made when a meteoroid in space collides with a planet, moon or other astronomical body. (“Meteorite” is what a meteor is called if it does not burn up before it lands. … We see many craters on the moon because it doesn’t have much of an atmosphere.
Will the Moon ever crash into Earth?
Short answer: Technically it’s possible that the Earth and Moon could collide in the very distant future, but it’s very unlikely. It’s certainly not going to happen while any of us are alive. Long answer: The Moon is in a stable orbit around Earth.
How did water get on Earth?
This is not a simple question: it was long thought that Earth formed dry – without water, because of its proximity to the Sun and the high temperatures when the solar system formed. In this model, water could have been brought to Earth by comets or asteroids colliding with the Earth.
What happens if the Moon crashed into Earth?
With the Moon coming closer, Earth’s rotation would speed up. Our days would become shorter and shorter. Global temperatures would go down, nobody would worry about climate change anymore. Unless asteroids burned the Earth to a crisp.
Why does the moon not have atmosphere?
Our Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere because it is too small and doesn’t have a strong magnetic field. Any atmosphere it might have had would be stripped away by the solar wind that barrages the small world. In contrast, our planet has more mass to hold its atmosphere close, and a strong magnetic field to protect it.
What causes wrinkle ridges?
Wrinkle ridges are tectonic features created when the basaltic lava cooled and contracted. They frequently outline ring structures buried within the mare, follow circular patterns outlining the mare, or intersect protruding peaks.
Does Moon have lava?
Lunar lava plains cover large swaths of the Moon’s surface and consist mainly of voluminous basaltic flows. … The Moon has been volcanically active throughout much of its history, with the first volcanic eruptions having occurred about 4.2 billion years ago.
