Mendeleev (crater)

Mendeleev
Oblique Apollo 16 image, facing west
(Gamma-ray spectrometer in foreground)
Coordinates5°42′N 140°54′E / 5.7°N 140.9°E / 5.7; 140.9
Diameter313 km
Colongitude224° at sunrise
EponymDmitri Mendeleev
Lunar Orbiter 1 image
Oblique view of Catena Mendeleev from Apollo 11. The crater Richards is at the top center. NASA photo.

Mendeleev is a large lunar impact crater that is located on the far side of the Moon, as seen from the Earth. The southern rim of this walled plain just crosses the lunar equator. Intruding into the eastern rim of Mendeleev is the crater Schuster. Nearly on the opposite side, the smaller Hartmann intrudes into west-southwestern rim.

The crater is named after the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. Even after formal naming in 1961 by the IAU,[1] the crater was known as Basin IX until the early 1970s.[2]

Mendeleev is a basin of Nectarian age.[3] The interior plains of Mendeleev are covered with deposits of the Cayley Formation of Imbrian age.[4]

Cayley Formation on the floor of Mendeleev (Apollo 16 image)
  1. ^ Mendeleev, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
  2. ^ Lunar Farside Chart (LFC-1A)
  3. ^ The geologic history of the Moon. USGS Professional Paper 1348. By Don E. Wilhelms, John F. McCauley, and Newell J. Trask. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1987. Table 9-3.
  4. ^ Apollo 16 Preliminary Science Report, NASA Special Publication 315, 1972. Chapter 28.