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Light Plains (Moon)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Light-colored highland deposits of plains on the Moon.

Synonyms

Cayley plains (Hodges and Muehlberger 1981), Light-colored terra plains (Wilhelms 1987), Terra plains (Wilhelms and McCauley 1971)

Description

Less cratered, smooth inter- and intracrater plains on the Moon. Light plains have higher albedo than that typical of mare basalts, but somewhat lower than that typical of highland terrains (Engel et al. 1987). Their surface morphology is mare-like (“characterized by ‘ponded’ appearance” [Schafer 1981]), while their geological setting and height is highland-like (Thiessen et al. 2012).

Subtypes

(1) Intercrater light plains (e.g., Cayley plains) (Fig. 1),

Fig. 1
figure 1

Cayley plains around Cayley crater (c). Materials east of Dionysius (d) are mare materials of Mare Tranquillitatis; materials west–northwest of Dionysius are light plains materials, whereas terra materials occur south–southwest of Dionysius. LROC WAC Equatorial mosaic (NASA/GSFC/ASU)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

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  1. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Institute for Advanced Study, Collegium Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

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Hargitai, H. (2014). Light Plains (Moon). In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_479-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_479-1

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