Geology of the massifs at the Apollo 17 landing site
The Apollo 17 spacecraft landed in a narrow valley that embays mountainous terrain near the southeastern edge of Mare Serenitatis. Two overlapping basin structures underlie Mare Serenitatis: a larger one to the south and a smaller one to the north. The massifs and sculptured hills in the Taurus-Littrow area and the mountains and knobby terrain in the outer Rook ring (third ring) of the Orientale basin are similar in morphology ; the Apollo 17 site lies approximately on the third ring of the southern Serenitatis basin structure. Assuming the third ring represents the approximate rim of the transient cavity of the southern Serenitatis structure, we suggest that ejecta many kilometres thick was deposited in the Taurus-Littrow area by the southern Serenitatis impact. This ejecta is visible in the massifs in the Apollo 17 landing site as discontinuous, irregular lenses of variable lithology. The southern Serenitatis target rocks were predominantly breccias that were invaded by impact-generated melt and redeposited during the southern Serenitatis event.