Fragmented Impact Melt

Western floor of Giordano Bruno crater. LROC NAC M110919730L, 0.61 m/pixel, image width is about 737 m. Illumination is from the lower right, incidence angle is 42° [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Today's Featured Image looks like a parched Arizona mudflat after a monsoon downpour. Not quite! You are looking at the broken surface of an impact melt pond inside Giordano Bruno crater. A surface crust fragmented into angular blocks up to about 40 m in width as still molten rock was drained from beneath a hardening crust. The small clusters of relatively bright rock fragments are likely boulders that rolled down from the nearby steep walls.

Context map around Giordano Bruno crater. Image center is 36.09°N, 102.83°E. LROC WAC 100 m/pix mosaic. Blue box at the image center corresponds to the footprint of today's featured NAC image [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

Explore lunar melt ponds by viewing the full NAC frame!

Related Featured Images:

Giordano Bruno impact melt flows and ejecta flows

Published by Hiroyuki Sato on 25 February 2011

Impact Melt