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Geologic maps of the Apennine-Hadley region of the Moon Apollo 15 pre-mission maps

September 20, 2023

This map shows the regional setting of the landing site for the Apollo 15 mission. The area lies approximately 650 km southeast of the center of the Imbrium basin, a large basalt-filled multi-ringed structure in the northwest quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Several arcuate structures surround the Imbrium basin (Hartmann and Kuiper, 1962). The most prominent of these forms the northwest-facing scarp of the Apennine Mountains that crosses the area from NNE to SSW. The scarp is a major structural boundary separating mostly basin-fill deposits to the northwest from either basin-synchronous or pre-basin deposits to the southeast. Of special interest is Rima Hadley, one of the widest and freshest appearing sinuous rilles on the Moon. It cuts through the mare surface to a maximum depth of about 400 meters and may expose in its walls a substantial section of the post-basin basalt. Rimae Fresnal and Rima Bradley are typical linear rilles older than Rima Hadley and do not cut mare materials. This area was previously mapped geologically at the 1:1,000,000-scale by Hackman (1966) from telescopic data.

Publication Year 2023
Title Geologic maps of the Apennine-Hadley region of the Moon Apollo 15 pre-mission maps
DOI 10.5066/P9CV6PG2
Authors M. H. Carr, K. A. Howard, Farouk El-Baz
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization Astrogeology Science Center