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19 68MNRAS.138. .245A Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. (1968 Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. (1968) 138, 245-249. .245A DARK-HALOED CRATERS ON THE MOON 68MNRAS.138. 19 John W. Salisbury y Joel E. M. Adler and Vern G. Smalley (Communicated by James Ring) (Received 1967 October 9) Summary A volcanic origin has consistently been hypothesized for the relatively rare dark-haloed craters on the lunar surface. A map of the most prominent of such features has been produced, which gives support to the hypothesis of their volcanic origin, and suggests a relationship between dark-haloed craters and contemporary transient events. Introduction. The origin of lunar craters has been debated for many years. A substantial majority of researchers, particularly in the United States, has believed that most of the lunar craters were produced by the impact of meteoroids or comets. Others have believed that the craters were produced by internal volcanic processes (see (1) for an historical review of this controversy). Recent evidence provided by Ranger and Orbiter space-craft photography has encouraged the more balanced view that both internal and external processes are operating, or have operated, on the lunar surface. Thus, some craters appear either to have been produced or extensively modified by volcanism; others appear to have been produced by impact (2)-(4). Yet it is difficult to distinguish between the effects of the two processes, because the morphology of both volcanic and impact craters can be very similar. Thus, provided largely with ambiguous evidence, the con- troversy continues. Amidst this controversy, one type of crater, that with dark haloes, has received very little attention. A dark-haloed crater, unlike a typical recent crater on the lunar surface, is generally surrounded by material of a lower albedo than that of its surroundings. This low-albedo material may be either in the form of a roughly circular aureole, or in the form of rays. Whatever the form of its halo, this sort of crater is relatively rare on the visible disk. Identification is made difficult because dark-haloed craters are typically small (less than 5 km in diameter) although a few such craters have been identified which are greater than 19 km in diameter. In addition, the halo varies both in degree of darkness and of contrast with the surrounding surface. One of the first genetic references to dark-haloed craters is found in the photo- geologic map of the moon compiled in 1962 by Hackman (5). He mapped a few of the most prominent such craters, and labelled them as probably volcanic in origin. Subsequent U.S. Geological Survey maps have occasionally shown the dark- haloed craters, and sometimes ignored these relatively minor features altogether. A later map of the Kepler region by Hackman himself, for example, did not show the prominent dark-haloed crater on a well-defined ray west of Kepler (6). Despite the general lack of attention paid to these craters, a volcanic origin has been consistently postulated for them (7). 16 © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System 246 John W. Salisbury, Joel E. M. Adler and Vern G. Smalley Vol. 138 .245A The recent Ranger IX experiment excited new interest in these features as a result of the high resolution photographs obtained of dark-haloed craters in Alphonsus. Again, a volcanic origin was postulated by the experimenters for these 68MNRAS.138. features, primarily because of obvious structural control of their location (3, pp. 19 122 and 271). In view of their raised rims, these features were considered to be constructional, rather than collapse features. They probably correspond to terrestrial maars, or gas explosion craters (3, pp. 134 and 275). Crater rim de- posits of these dark-haloed craters are characteristically convex upward, in contrast to the sharply concave upward rims of what are generally assumed to be impact craters (3, p. 318). The rim materials of the dark-haloed craters in Alphonsus are pitted with many small, superimposed, rimless craters, which may have been formed by the impact of large blocks of cohesive material ejected from a central vent (3, pp. 122 and 318). Most authors consider the rim material itself to be pyroclastic debris (3, p. 275), but it is possible that it is composed in part of material derived from the gas that produced the crater in the first place (8). There is some doubt about the relative ages of dark-haloed craters. Kuiper et al. suggest that the dark-haloed craters as a class are older than the Copernicus ray system (3, p. 228). Shoemaker refers to the dark-haloed craters around Coper- nicus, on the other hand, as being among the youngest features on the lunar surface and maps them as younger than the Copernicus ray material (7, map facing p. 306). In summary, current thought concerning the dark-haloed craters in general is that, like the ones in Alphonsus, they are of volcanic origin, probably of the maar or gas explosion type. Their relative age is doubtful, but they are younger than the maria. They are often ignored as minor lunar surface features. The purpose of this paper is to test the volcanic hypothesis for the origin, of dark-haloed craters as a class, to determine the age relationships of these features and to study the connection, if any, between these features and contemporary occurrences of possible internal origin; i.e. lunar clouds, bright spots and other transient phenomena. Method and results. Particularly fine full Moon photographs have been taken in the last few years on the U.S. Naval Observatory 61-inch telescope (Flagstaff, Arizona) in a co-operative programme between that institution and the Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Centre. Very long (12-80 s) exposure images are obtained on extremely fine grained plates (Kodak Type 649-F). Careful use of UFG developer has generally resulted in maximum resolution and a linear density response. As a result, the very high spatial resolution (usually better than o • 5 arc sec) on the plates is accompanied by an unusually clear delineation of albedo differences. A selection of contact copies of these superior plates was used in mapping the dark-haloed craters, and the craters were mapped independently by each of us. No other source of information was used; i.e. advantage was not taken of local high resolution photographic coverage, such as that provided by Ranger IX, in order that the general distribution of craters could be more certainly determined. Discrepancies in our individual maps were resolved through discussion and study of different plates. Inevitably, despite these efforts, the final result is to some extent subjective. In addition, these are many more dark-haloed (but faint) craters on the lunar surface than we show on our maps. The important point in this © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System No. 3, 1968 Dark-haloed craters on the Moon 247 .245A regard is that, despite disagreement on individual craters, the pattern of crater distribution was the same for each of our maps. The reality of this pattern is affected by the quality of photographic coverage of a given area, and by the degree 68MNRAS.138. of contrast of the dark haloes with the background on which they lie. We have 19 tried to eliminate the effects of variable photographic quality by using twelve different plates, the most useful of which were 5818 and 3171-A. We have also attempted to reduce the effects of variable contrast by using prints of different densities made on different contrast photographic paper, one combination of which is usually found to optimize the detection of dark-haloed craters in a given area. We have also found it most useful to work with negative prints, which make the dark-haloed craters more easily discernable. Having used these techniques, we believe that relatively few prominent dark- haloed craters are shown on our maps for an area, such as central Serenitatis, because there are, in fact, few such craters there. It does, of course, become more difficult to detect these craters near the lunar limb. Consequently, the total number of dark-haloed craters mapped beyond about 500 east and west longitude or north and south latitude is surely too low. Again, however, we believe that the distribution pattern of these craters is still valid, with the possible exception of western Oceanus Procellarum, where exceptionally poor contrast aggravates the limb problem. Characteristics of dark-haloed craters. Three different types of dark features were seen on our photographs. (1) The most prominent dark-haloed craters typically displayed a bright central crater, with a well-defined, very dark halo, which is roughly one crater diameter wide (see Fig. 1). Some of these craters have dark rays that extend several crater diameters beyond the halo. The less prominent dark-haloed craters displayed the same morphological characteristics, but the haloes were less dark and the craters less bright. (2) The larger dark-haloed craters typically have haloes less than one crater diameter wide—e.g. Picard. One large crater, Dionysius, has an extensive system of very dark rays (9), but this is an unusual feature. (3) Intense dark spots occur on these photographs, which are typically quite small (less than 1 km in diameter) and possess no discernable crater. Often, many such dark spots are found together in fields, usually on a darker than usual mare surface (see Fig. 1). Presumably, these are also dark-haloed craters, with the crater itself too small to be resolved. These craters were not individually mapped, but an indication of the general location of such crater fields is given in the next section. Distribution of dark-haloed craters.
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