PIA12938: Wrinkle Ridge Near Montes Teneriffe
 Target Name:  Moon
 Is a satellite of:  Earth
 Mission:  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
 Spacecraft:  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
 Instrument:  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (NAC)
 Product Size:  1200 x 1200 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Arizona State University
 Other  
Information: 
More details and images at LROC
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA12938.tif (1.442 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA12938.jpg (289.4 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

Boulders perched atop a wrinkle ridge in Mare Imbrium west of the Montes Teneriffe. Image width is 2 km, NAC frame M102264014RE.

Mare wrinkle ridge outlined by dramatic low Sun shadowing. Common in the lunar mare, wrinkle ridges are found in nearly all of the lunar maria, lunar scientists think that there is a genetic relationship between the basalts they deform and the ridges themselves. Basalt is much denser than the anorthositic crust on which the mare basalts are deposited. As the basalt fills in low areas in the crust, the increased weight causes sagging and the mare deposit is compressed, resulting in tectonic deformation in the form of wrinkle ridges.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center built and manages the mission for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera was designed to acquire data for landing site certification and to conduct polar illumination studies and global mapping. Operated by Arizona State University, the LROC facility is part of the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE). LROC consists of a pair of narrow-angle cameras (NAC) and a single wide-angle camera (WAC). The mission is expected to return over 70 terabytes of image data.

Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

Image Addition Date:
2009-12-29