Palus Putredinis (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''palūs pūtrēdinis'' "Marsh of Decay")
is a small
lunar mare
The lunar maria (; singular: mare ) are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient asteroid impacts on the far side on the Moon that triggered volcanic activity on the opposite (near) side. They were dubbed , Latin for 'seas' ...
in the basin of
Mare Imbrium. It stretches from the crater
Archimedes southeast toward the rugged
Montes Apenninus
Montes Apenninus are a rugged mountain range on the northern part of the Moon's near side. They are named after the Apennine Mountains in Italy. With their formation dating back about 3.9 billion years, Montes Apenninus are fairly old.
Descri ...
range located on the southeastern edge of Mare Imbrium.
[ This region is a nearly level, ]lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
-flooded plain bounded by the crater Autolycus and nearby highlands to the northeast and the foothills of the Montes Archimedes
Montes Archimedes is a mountain range on the Moon. It is named after the nearby crater Archimedes, which in turn is named after the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes.
This group of mountains is located on a plateau in the eastern part of t ...
to the southwest. The selenographic coordinate
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sign ...
s are 27.4° N, 0.0° E, and it lies within a diameter of 180 km.[
In the southern part of this area is a ]rille
Rille (German for 'groove') is typically used to describe any of the long, narrow depressions in the surface of the Moon that resemble channels. The Latin term is ''rima'', plural ''rimae''. Typically, a rille can be several kilometers wi ...
system designated Rimae Archimedes. To the south is a prominent linear rille named Rima Bradley, and to the east is the Rima Hadley, which served as the landing site for Apollo 15,[ and the Rimae Fresnel. Just to the northwest of the Palus Putredinis midpoint is the nearly submerged crater Spurr. Luna 2 crashed in this area on September 13, 1959..][
The basalts in this mare have been interpreted as rich in radioactive elements, but low in titanium. The mare basalts sampled at the Apollo 15 landing site are, "dominated by two low‐titanium varieties, the olivine‐normative basalts (3.30 Gyr) and the quartz‐normative basalts, which are slightly older (3.35 Gyr)". Volcanic glasses show ages of 3.30–3.60 Gyr.][
]
Gallery
File:Palus-putredinis-clem1.jpg, Mosaic of Clementine
A clementine (''Citrus × clementina'') is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange ( ''C.'' × ''deliciosa'') and a sweet orange (''C. × sinensis''), named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who fir ...
images taken with high Sun
See also
*Volcanism on the Moon
Volcanism on the Moon is represented by the presence of volcanoes, pyroclastic deposits and vast lava plains on the lunar surface. The volcanoes are typically in the form of small domes and cones that form large volcanic complexes and isolated ed ...
References
External links
Map of the region with actual names of surface featuresarchive
.
Putredinis, Palus
Mare Imbrium
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