The Destruction of Small Lunar Craters
A. T. Basilevskya, *, **, G. G. Michaelb, S. S. Krasilnikova, and N. A. Kozlovaa, c
aVernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
bPlanetary Sciences and Remote Sensing, Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Berlin, Germany
cMoscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK), Moscow, Russia
Correspondence to: *e-mail: atbas@geokhi.ru
Correspondence to: **e-mail: Alexander_Basilevsky@Brown.edu
Received 25 November, 2019
Abstract—The paper discusses three types of processes of destruction of small lunar craters: (1) destruction by overlapping craters; (2) destruction due to filling with ejecta from neighboring and remote craters; and (3) destruction due to the displacement of surface material by various slope processes. These processes act together, but the role of each in a specific situation and at different stages of the evolution of a crater may change. Their intensity over the past three billion years of the Moon’s history has been noticeably lower than in previous eras. This circumstance needs be taken into account when estimating the time of the potential existence of craters in different periods of the Moon’s history.
Keywords: crater, crater ejecta, slope processes, furrow, graben, regolith
DOI: 10.1134/S0038094620040036