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National Air and Space Museum Image Detail

Gregory Scarp

Gregory Scarp

 

Over recent geologic time, as the lunar interior cooled and contracted  the entire Moon shrank by about 100 m. As a result its brittle crust ruptured and thrust faults (compression) formed distinctive landforms known as lobate scarps. In a particularly dramatic example, a thrust fault pushed crustal materials (arrows) up the side of the farside impact crater named Gregory (2.1°N, 128.1°E). By mapping the distribution and determining the size of all lobate scarps, the tectonic and thermal history of the Moon can be reconstructed over the past billion years.
Image Number: WEB11565-2010
Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University/Smithsonian
For print or commercial use, please contact: Smithsonian Institution
Reproductions are not currently available. If you would like to use this image as-is, please submit a permission request.

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