image: Another fault cut across and deformed several small diameter (~40-m diameter) impact craters (arrows) on the flanks of Mandel’shtam crater (6.5°N, 161°E). The fault carried near-surface crustal materials up and over the craters, burying parts of their floors and rims. About half of the rim and floor of a 20 m-in-diameter crater shown in the box has been lost. Since small craters only have a limited lifetime before they are destroyed by newer impacts, their deformation by the fault shows the fault to be relatively young. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Aug. 20, 2010, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and colleagues was titled, "Evidence of Recent Thrust Faulting on the Moon Revealed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Smithsonian