Finsch crater AS17-P-2335
Arizona State University, Apollo Image Archive, Apollo Browse Gallery, Apollo 17 Panoramic Camera
AS17-P-2335This picture, showing an area in central Mare Serenitatis 200 km from the nearest outcrops of terra rocks, is an oblique view of a 4-km diameter crater form about 200 m deep. The crater floor is similar to the surface of the surrounding mare, which is presumably mare basalt covered by 3 to 6 m of regolith. The rim of the crater is raised, although subdued; from this we infer that the present form was developed when mare lava flooded a normal impact crater that had formed on a lower, preexisting surface. The flooding basalt then subsided, more or less in proportion to its thickness, which was greatest inside the crater. The subsidence may have resulted from escape of bubbles from the lava while it was soft, thermal contraction of the lava, and compaction of an underlying relatively loosely packed regolith. Regolith compaction may have occurred when the load and heat of the flooding lava crushed irregular fragments of regolith into more compact shapes and plastically deformed the glassy components of the regolith into more compact shapes or into voids between other particles.
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