What is a lunar Rille quizlet?

What is a lunar rille? A large crater with a central peak. only on the Earth-facing side of the Moon. The major layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, from the surface upward, in correct order, are. stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, troposphere.

What are lunar rilles What are Rays?

What are lunar rilles? What are rays? Lunar rilles formed from lava flows or when bed rock craked as it cooled and shrunk. Rays are long, light streaks of pulverized rocks radiating outward from craters.

What are lunar highlands?

Lunar Highlands ● Elevated areas on the moon’s surface. ● The lunar highlands are the lighter areas on the moon visible to the naked eye.

How many rilles are on the moon?

They usually begin at an extinct volcano, then meander and sometimes split as they are followed across the surface. As of 2013, 195 sinuous rilles have been identified on the Moon.

How are lunar Rilles formed?

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 does the Moon not have?

Just as the discovery of water on the moon transformed our textbook knowledge of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor, recent studies confirm that our moon does indeed have an atmosphere consisting of some unusual gases, including sodium and potassium, which are not found in the atmospheres of Earth, Mars or Venus.

How old are the lunar highlands?

Most highland samples have ages in the range 3.8–4.3 billion years. The radiometric ages of the ejecta blankets from the large collisions tend to cluster around 3.9 billion years, with the dates for the Imbrium collision being 3.85 billion years and that for Nectaris, 3.90 or 3.92 billion years.

How deep is the lunar regolith?

The lunar surface is covered by a layer of unconsolidated debris called the lunar regolith (fig. 53). The thickness of the regolith varies from about 5 m on mare surfaces to about 10 m on highland surfaces.

What are the three main features of the moon?

While the craters, highlands and maria are the moon’s three main landforms, the moon’s surface has a number of other highly visible features. For example, some impact craters have bright rays that shoot outward from the center.

Are Rilles older than maria?

The endogenic crater (Feature 1) has is superposed on top of the arcuate rille (Feature 2), indicating that it is younger than the rille. It also morphs it requiring the Rille to be there first to be morphed. The Maria-Highland border (Feature 3) is the oldest feature.

Are Highlands older than maria?

Further, different parts of the surface of the Moon exhibit different amounts of cratering and therefore are of different ages: the maria are younger than the highlands, because they have fewer craters. The oldest surfaces in the Solar System are characterized by maximal cratering density.

Are Rilles older than Maria?

Where are rilles found on the lunar surface?

Three types of rille are found on the lunar surface: Sinuous rilles meander in a curved path like a mature river, and are commonly thought to be the remains of collapsed lava tubes or extinct lava flows. Arcuate rilles have a smooth curve and are found on the edges of the dark lunar maria.

What does rille stand for on the Moon?

Alternative Title: rill. Rille, (from German: “groove,” or “furrow”) any of various valleys or trenches on the surface of the Moon.

How are rilles and rilles similar on Earth?

While sinuous rilles are a common lunar landform, there are similar, though typically much shorter, volcanic features on Earth that form when magma steadily emerges from a vent and forms a channelized flow.

How are sinuous rilles similar to river valleys?

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.