Compared to geology of the Lunar Highlands: ● Lunar highlands have more impact craters than the impact craters. So, the highlands are older.
How can you tell which craters are older or younger?
Crater counting is a simple concept. The age of basalt flows on the moon can be accomplished by counting the number of impacts on the site. The more craters there are in the area, the older the location. Likewise, the less craters, the younger the location.
Which feature is older maria or highlands?
Further, different parts of the surface of the Moon exhibit different amounts of cratering and therefore are of different ages: the maria are younger than the highlands, because they have fewer craters. The oldest surfaces in the Solar System are characterized by maximal cratering density.
How old are the highlands on the Moon?
It also established that the intense cratering of the highlands occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago. Most highland samples have ages in the range 3.8–4.3 billion years.
Are the lunar highlands The oldest part of the Moon?
The oldest lunar features are the lunar highlands. This is mainly determined by looking at the number of impact craters that the different areas of the moon have. The longer that a feature has been around, the more time it has had to be hit by the meteors that leave impact craters.
Which craters seem the oldest?
The Vredefort impact crater, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Johannesburg, South Africa, was formed just a little over 2 billion years ago. It is the oldest and largest impact crater recognized on Earth’s surface.
What are the oldest craters?
Earth’s oldest confirmed impact crater is the Yarrabubba Crater in Western Australia. It is 2.2 billion years old.
Is lunar maria or highlands older?
Compared to geology of the Lunar Highlands: ● Lunar highlands have more impact craters than the mare. So, the highlands are older. They are the same age as the highlands because both features were formed by the hardening of lava. Also, they are mafic in composition, which means they were created by magma.
How much older are the highlands than the maria?
The radioactive dating of highland samples shows that they are only slightly older than the maria, about 4.2 billion years versus 3.8 billion years. If the impact rate was constant over the Moon’s history, the highlands would be least 10 times older than the maria, or about 38 billion years old.
What is the difference between maria and highlands?
Maria vs. Highlands
The side facing the earth consists of dark (basaltic) lava filled basins called mare (maria) or seas. The lighter areas are heavily impacted terrain called the highlands.
What is the oldest terrain on the Moon?
Highlands. Oldest terrain on the Moon. Highlands rocks are thoroughly pulverized by impacts.
What is the oldest part of the Moon?
The light colored areas are the oldest part of the Moon’s surface – they have many craters and are called the “cratered highlands.” This part of the Moon’s crust formed from a cooling magma ocean soon after the Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago!
What are the oldest features on the Moon?
Answer and Explanation: The Lunar Highlands are the oldest features of our moon. These highlands are about four billion years old (the moon itself is considered to be about 4.4 billion years old) and were created by a huge crater after the impact of a large object, most likely a meteor, with the moon.
Which crater is oldest on the Moon?
the South Pole-Aitken basin
Stretching 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers) wide and 8 miles (13 km) deep, the South Pole-Aitken basin, as the tremendous hole is known to Earthlings, is the oldest and deepest crater on the moon, and one of the largest craters in the entire solar system.
What are the youngest and oldest features on the Moon?
The endogenic crater (Feature 1) has is superposed on top of the arcuate rille (Feature 2), indicating that it is younger than the rille. It also morphs it requiring the Rille to be there first to be morphed. The Maria-Highland border (Feature 3) is the oldest feature.
When did the highlands on the Moon form?
between 4.1 and 4.4 billion years ago
Because they formed so early in lunar history (between 4.1 and 4.4 billion years ago), the highlands are also extremely heavily cratered, bearing the scars of all those billions of years of impacts by interplanetary debris (Figure 2).
Where is the youngest crater?
Giordano Bruno Crater is one of the youngest large craters on the moon, 13 miles (21 km) in diameter, and located at 35.97 degrees north latitude, 102.89 degrees east longitude.
What is the youngest crater on Earth?
The youngest impact crater on the Earth is only about 200 years old, and is located in the southeast part of Saudi Arabia. The Wabar craters were discovered by St John Philby in 1932.
What is the first largest crater on Earth?
the Vredefort crater
At roughly 62 miles (100 kilometers) in diameter, the Vredefort crater, located near the present-day city of Johannesburg, South Africa, is the largest and oldest-known impact crater on the planet.
What is the oldest spot on Earth?
Earth’s oldest known piece of continental crust dates to the era of the moon’s formation. Australia holds the oldest continental crust on Earth, researchers have confirmed, hills some 4.4 billion years old.
What is the oldest spot in the world?
Dating to around 3.6 billion years ago, the Pilbara region of Western Australia is home to the fossilised evidence of the Earth’s oldest lifeforms.