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| From the complementary left-side frame of the north-northwest interior of Mare Tsiolkovskiy spotlighted January 10, "bulging" and interestingly entwined wrinkle ridges can be seen extending into the prominent farside crater's very flat and expansive floor. Sunlight is from northeast in this slightly "twisted" view of the original Featured Image (which shows a larger field of view 610 meters across) HERE. LROC Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) observation M161475783L, orbit 8930, May 31, 2011, resolution 0.61 meter per pixel from 58.99 kilometers [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
LROC News System
The mare in the Tsiolkovskiy crater looks extremely flat and smooth at first glance. But if you stare carefully, you can find many tectonic features deforming this large plain; extension cracks, classic wrinkle ridges, and special wrinkle ridges that have a convex bulge shape.
Today's Featured Image shows a portion of a narrow "bulging" wrinkle ridge 60 to 100 meters in width, extending in a northeast direction to the edge of the mare. Wrinkle ridges are common in the lunar mare and are believed to be a type of thrust fault. These ridges typically have a steep slope on one side and a shallow slope on the other. In this case, the ridge seems to have a uniform curved shape. Local tectonic conditions such as the thickness of mare, stress direction, and the layer strength affect the final shape of a ridge. Since this ridge has a unique shape, it is now targeted for future NAC stereo imaging. From the new stereo pair, scientists will make a detailed topographic map that will allow tectonic experts to better understand the nature of this feature and add to our knowledge of tectonism on the Moon.
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| LROC WAC 100 m/pixel monochrome (643 nm) mosaic of the area around northwest Mare Tsiolkovskiy. The area shown at high resolution (white arrow) is near 19.41°S, 127.34°E. View the full-scale WAC context image, and the totality of Tsiolkovskiy's interior HERE [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
Explore the full length of the "bulging" wrinkle ridge and other nearby tectonic features, HERE.
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Right Angle
Wrinkle ridge in Oceanus Procellarum
Sinuous Chain of Depressions
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