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Geology of Shackleton Crater and the south pole of the Moon
Author(s) -
Spudis Paul D.,
Bussey Ben,
Plescia Jeffrey,
Josset JeanLuc,
Beauvivre Stéphane
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl034468
Subject(s) - impact crater , geology , massif , structural basin , far side of the moon , geomorphology , paleontology , astrobiology , geophysics , physics
Using new SMART‐1 AMIE images and Arecibo and Goldstone high resolution radar images of the Moon, we investigate the geological relations of the south pole, including the 20 km‐diameter crater Shackleton. The south pole is located inside the topographic rim of the South Pole‐Aitken (SPA) basin, the largest and oldest impact crater on the Moon and Shackleton is located on the edge of an interior basin massif. The crater Shackleton is found to be older than the mare surface of the Apollo 15 landing site (3.3 Ga), but younger than the Apollo 14 landing site (3.85 Ga). These results suggest that Shackleton may have collected extra‐lunar volatile elements for at least the last 2 billion years and is an attractive site for permanent human presence on the Moon.