Geology topics
Publications and source records attributed to R. M. Batson.
A map of “albedo” boundaries (light and dark markings) on Mars was prepared from Mariner 9 images. After special digital processing, these pictures provide detailed locations of albedo boundaries, which is significant in interpreting recent eolian activity. Derivation of absolute albedo values from the spacecraft data was not attempted. The map correlates well with telescopic observations of Mars after the 1971 dust storm.
Digital image-processing techniques have been developed to make shaded-relief images from digitized topographic data. The resulting images have at least two advantages over aerial photographs: (1) The images are true map projections containing no relief-induced distortion, and (2) tonal variation is unambiguously identified with relief, rather than with snow, vegetation, or other albedo variations. Parallax can be introduced into these images in the computer, and stereoscopic pairs can thus be created.
Apollo 17 landed in a deep graben valley embaying the mountainous highlands southeast of the Serenitatis basin. Impact-generated breccias underlie the massifs adjacent to the valley, and basalt has flooded and leveled the valley floor. The dark mantle inferred from orbital photographs was not recognized as a discrete unit; the unusually thick regolith of the valley floor contains a unique high concentration of dark glass beads that may cause the low albedo of much of the surface.
This is a catalog of all pictures taken from the lunar module or the lunar surface during the Apollo 17 lunar stay with electric Hasselblad cameras on 70 mm film. Pictures taken from lunar orbit are not listed in the tabulations. The tabulations are arranged for the following specific uses: 1) given the number of a particular frame, find its location in the sequence of lunar surface activity, the station from which it was taken and the subject matter of the picture (table 3). 2-) given a particular location or activity within the sequence of lunar surface activity, find the pictures taken at that time and their subject matter (table 2). 3) Information concerning coverage with the 500 mm camera is given in figures 1 and 2. Film usage statistics are contained in table 1. 4) given a specific frame number, find the serial number of the camera with which it was taken (table 4). Returned sample information contained in the listings was compiled by various members of the Apollo Lunar Geology Investigation Team. Detailed information concerning the samples is given in "Documentation and Environments of the Apollo 17 Samples--a Preliminary Report," U.S. Geological Survey Interagency Report 71, by the Apollo Lunar GeologyInvestigation Team. The catalog was generated by correlation of individual pictures with transcripts of verbal data and notes taken by members of the Apollo Lunar Geology Investigation Team during the Apollo 17 mission. This correlation is a complex task and is still in progress. Errors in the tabulations are therefore inevitable, but it is anticipated that these will not materially affect interpretation of geologic data from the mission.
The Apollo 17 lunar module (LM) landed on the flat floor of a deep valley that embays the mountainous highlands at the eastern rim of the Serenitatis basin. Serenitatis, the site of a pronounced mascon, is one of the major multi-ringed basins on the near side of the Moon. The Taurus-Littrow valley, which is radial to the Serenitatis basis, is interpreted as a deep graben formed by structural adjustment of lunar crustal material to the Serenitatis impact.
At orbit insertion on 14 November 1971 the Martian surface was largely obscured by a dust haze with an extinction optical depth that ranged from near unity in the south polar region to probably greater than 2 over most of the planet. The only features clearly visible were the south polar cap, one dark, spot in Nix Olympica, and three dark spots in the Tharsis region. During the third week the atmosphere began to clear and surface visibility improved, but contrasts remained a fraction of their normal value. Each of the dark spots that apparently protrude through most of the dust-filled atmosphere has a crater or crater complex in its center. The craters are rimless and have featureless floors that, in the crater complexes, are at different levels. The largest crater within the southernmost spot is approximately 100 kilometers wide. The craters apparently were formed by subsidence and resemble terrestrial calderas. The south polar cap has a regular margin, suggesting very flat topography. Two craters outside the cap have frost on their floors; an apparent crater rim within the cap is frost free, indicating preferential loss of frost from elevated ground. If this is so then the curvilinear streaks, which were frost covered in 1969 and are now clear of frost, may be low-relief ridges. Closeup pictures of Phobos and Deimos show that Phobos is about 25 ±5 by 21 ±1 kilometers and Deimos is about 13.5 ± 2 by 12.0 ±0.5 kilometers. Both have irregular shapes and are highly cratered, with some craters showing raised rims. The satellites are dark objects with geometric albedos of 0.05.
The samples and photographs returned from the Apollo 15 site show that Hadley Delta is largely underlain by breccias whose clasts are mainly fragments of coarse-grained feldspathic rocks and nonmare-type basalt. Conspicuous sets of lineaments, visible in surface and orbital photographs of Mount Hadley and Hadley Delta, may represent systematic layering or fracture sets. The mare surface, with regolith about 5 meters thick, is underlain by two major basalt types, at least one of which has extensive lateral continuity and is exposed in the upper wall of Hadley Rille. Gradual erosional recession of the edges and filing of the interior of the rille by talus have contributed to the present cross sectional profile.
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The Apollo 15 lunar module (LM) landed at longitude 03°39'20'' E, latitude 26°26'00'' N on the mare surface of Palus Putredinis on the eastern edge of the Imbrium Basin. The site is between the Apennine Mountain front and Hadley Rille. The objectives of the mission, in order of decreasing priority, were description and sampling of three major geologic features—the Apennine Front, Hadley Rille, and the mare.
The Apollo 16 landing site in the lunar central highlands encompassed terra plains and adjacent mountainous areas of hilly and furrowed terra. These morphologic units, representing important terrane types in the lunar highlands, had been interpreted as volcanic on most premission geologic maps. However, it became apparent during the mission that there are indeed few or no volcanic rocks or landforms at the site but rather that the area is underlain by a wide variety of impact-generated breccias.
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This report was prepared to illustate the locations and lunar orientations of the documented samples returned by Apollo 14. It supersedes U.S. Geological Survey Interagency Report No. 27 (Swann et al., 1971a). Some of the illustrations are taken from the Preliminary Science Report ("Ninety-day report") submitted to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by the Apollo Lunar Geology Investigation (S-059) team (Swann et al., 1971h). Sample locations were determined from lunar surface photographs, from descriptions by the astronauts at the time of sampling, and from a correlation between sample bags in which the samples were returned and the traverse locations where those bags were used. The lunar orientations of samples were determined from correlations between the samples, as seen in the LRL, with photographs taken on the lunar surface before the samples were collected. In several cases, NASA models of samples were used for the purpose of identification and orientation. Oblique lighting was used to reconstruct the approximate lunar orientations of identified samples (Sutton and Schaber, 1971).
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This report provides a preliminary description of the geologic setting of the lunar samples returned fromt he Apollo 12 mission. A more complete interpretation of the geology of the site will be prepared after thorough analysis of the data.
The Apollo 11 LM landed approximately 20 km south-southwest of the crater Sabine D in the southwestern part of Mare Tranquillitatis ( fig. 3-1 ). The landing site is 41.5 km north-northeast of the western promontory of the Kant Plateau (ref. 3-1 ), which is the nearest highland region. The Surveyor 5 spacecraft is approximately 25 km north-northwest of the Apollo 11 landing site, and the impact crater formed by Ranger 8 is 68 km northeast of the landing site.
Five successful Surveyor spacecraft landed on the Moon between June 1966 and January 1968 and returned over 87,000 pictures from the lunar surface. Surveyors I, III, V, and VI landed on mare surfaces; Surveyor VII landed in the southern highlands on the flank of the crater Tycho, the youngest, large bright-ray crater on the Moon.
Surveyor VI landed on the lunar surface at 01:01:05 GMT on day 314 (November 10, 1967) in the southwestern part of Sinus Medii near the center of the visible face of the Moon. Over 30,000 pictures were transmitted from the spacecraft during the first lunar day of operation. The number of pictures taken by Surveyor VI almost equals the total number of pictures returned from the previous Surveyor missions combined. The pictures were received at the Goldstone, California, Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain, tracking stations of the Deep Space Network.