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Lunar Landscape: Rilles

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Lunar Science

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Definition

A rille is a long and narrow valley on the Moon and appears to have been formed by subsidence or collapse of surface materials along a crustal fracture (Baldwin 1968), which could be ascribed to the thermal and mechanical erosion, construction, and volatiles between the basement surface and a surficial permafrost layer (Cameron 1964, Quaide 1965). Since the first study with Apollo and Lunar Orbiter during the 1960s and 1970s, Luna Missions Stooke, P. the lunar sinuous rilles were considered as an enigmatic feature. Rilles attract much more scientific interest, because the rilles are related to the discovery of linear negative relief features on the Moon (Cruikshank and Wood 1972). The studies of rilles could help us to better understand the lunar geological processes and the origin of geomorphological features on the Moon (Hurwitz et al. 2013).

Classification and Distribution

The large cracks on the moon could be divided into two categories according to their width including...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geo-exploration Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun, 130026, China

    Shuang Huang

Authors
  1. Shuang Huang
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Correspondence to Shuang Huang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Prairie View A&M University, Houston, Texas, USA

    Brian Cudnik

Section Editor information

  1. Key Laboratory of Lunar and Deep-space Exploration, Chinese Academy of Science, 100012, Beijing, PR China

    Yuanzhi Zhang Dr.

  2. College of Geo-exploration Science and Technology, Jinlin University, Changchun, PR China

    Shengbo Chen Dr.

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Huang, S. (2017). Lunar Landscape: Rilles. In: Cudnik, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lunar Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_47-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_47-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05546-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05546-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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