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Mesoscale Positive-Relief Landforms, Moon

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

Definition

Small (less than several km) mounds of circular to elliptic outline with positive conical relief displaying a central depression (Wood 1979); without genetic implications.

Subtypes

  1. (1)

    Small cone: circular to elliptical cone-like features, <100 m high, <3 km across. They formed along fissures or in maria. Type example: Isis, Osiris (Head 1975) (Fig. 1). They are interpreted as cinder cones or maars (Wood 1979). Isis, Osiris, and Mons Esam are aligned linearly and are interpreted to have formed by eruptions associated with near-surface dikes (Weitz and Head 1999). The cones associated with the rille Rima Parry V in Fra Mauro crater are also aligned linearly, parallel to an adjacent graben, and do not exhibit lava flows. They are proposed to be spatter cones (Head and Wilson 1993; Weitz and Head 1999).

  2. (2)

    Large cone (Nonmare Dome): steep sided, 300–500 m high, few km in diameter (type example: Marius Hills) (Head 1975). Marius Hills cones are proposed to have formed by...

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References

  • Head JW (1975) Morphology of pyroclastic lunar volcanic deposits: implications for eruption conditions and localized sources of volatiles. LPSC VI:349–351

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  • Head JW III, Wilson L (1993) Lunar graben formation due to near-surface deformation accompanying dike emplacement. Planet Space Sci 41(10):719–727

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  • Weitz CM, Head JW (1999) Spectral properties of the Marius Hills volcanic complex and implications for the formation of lunar domes and cones. J Geophys Res 104(E8):18933–18956

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  • Wood CA (1979) Cinder cones on Earth, Moon and Mars. LPS XXI:1370–1371

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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (2014). Mesoscale Positive-Relief Landforms, Moon. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_586-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_586-1

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