TLP Project - Black Stuff

[kodemunkey]

Well, now that you taught me how to use act react, think of all the extra science you can do. 

[Tom128]

I am a citizen scientist like you kodemunkey and learn something new all the time.    Irene and Stu are the heavy hitters.

Well, now that you taught me how to use act react, think of all the extra science you can do. 

[Tom128]

Kodemunkey's black stuff find is quite extraordinary and I have added some additional photographs.  The crater is 5 km in diameter and is located on the lunar farside.   Center  lat 8 N and  long 182.96

http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc_browse/view/M125733619  It really is a beauty!



If you look around the crater interior and along the rim you will see quite a bit of black stuff. I originally speculated that it may be some inner regolith layer but now I believe it may actually be a very dark surface layer that is thin and brittle, easily broken up.  The photo below (west rim of crater) shows some of the black stuff and even some lying on a boulder shown lower left 




Here is an undisturbed area along the crater's southwest rim which I believe to be that dark brittle surface layer or crust. It may be a similar feature to what we have been seeing with the pareidolia formations such as the lunar whale. It too may have had a thin crust like upper layer that was easliy broken up to form the image.  Wonder if there is any information in the lunar science community about a thin surface crust of regolith as a known feature?

[placidstorm]

Still scratching my head on this blackness  Some of it looks like shadow and some really don't . Hope we can get better pic's .

[Geoff]

Nice find kodemunkey and Tom128. Further research needed!

[kodemunkey]

I had the featured images from february 11 activated, so i thought i'd have me a look around.

I got a little side tracked while looking for sinkholes in Marius Hills.





And this while hunting for rockets:

[Tom128]

Hi Geoff, Jules and everyone,

If the black stuff in the crater and along the rim is due to a very high albedo effect, then the very high reflectivity of the material is quite similar to a lunar lander with its aluminum body.  Reminds me of the Luna 20 lander photograph where the sun is bearing directly down on the spacecraft- no shadow.



http://forum.moonzoo.org/index.php?topic=171.0


Kodemunkey's black stuff below:




The only thing I can think of that would be that reflective on the lunar surface is a glass-like material similar perhaps to this Apollo sample below:



http://forum.moonzoo.org/index.php?topic=264.msg6052#msg6052

This could fall in line with my view that there is a brittle surface layer of material around the rim of the crater, now adding the possibility of it being impact melt glass.  So perhaps an impact melt splash can also be partially liquified glass.



 

[jules]

Inrteresting thoughts Tom! Thanks for posting this. Hopefully a pro will come along and comment!

[Tom128]

You know, the more you look at that photo strip, the more one begins to believe it is shadow.  I had a very, very long look this evening and think it is more likely a trick of lighting as placidstorm and Jules had tried to kindly tell me. Finding black stuff is like looking for unicorns. Sorry for the goose chase 

[placidstorm]

Hey Tom
 ya bumped it b4 I could get the pics out

 

  rock and shadow , thought these kinda pic's were " lil fuzzy "

[Tom128]

Placidstorm, you nailed it with the cleaned up version.  Obvious shadow now.   This is a tough business with those lunar shadows lurking everywhere!

[kodemunkey]

So are we looking at something like obsidian then?

[jules]

Hey Tom
 ya bumped it b4 I could get the pics out

 

  rock and shadow , thought these kinda pic's were " lil fuzzy "

That's madness!! The difference is quite startling. I don't think this is all down to shadow. It looks more like the black area is exposed darker underlying material which can still be seen (thoughy not as dramatically) in the second lower sun version. Best example yet of what a difference sun angles can make. 

Gold star to placidstorm for matching those two images up! Tom128 and I know how hard that can be!!

[jules]

Forgot the obsidian..... I don't think this is a lunar mineral though glass deposits are associated with volcanic activity. The dark areas are probably excavated dark material overlying the lighter terrain - ie a dark haloed crater. Anyone else?

[kodemunkey]

Hold onto your hats folks, christmas just arrived early 



http://target.lroc.asu.edu/da/qmap.html?mv=eqc&mcx=-143198.01196&mcy=370628.21331&mz=11

Region of interest:
Lower-Left corner (lon, lat) = ( -4.90804, 12.06525)
Upper-Right corner (lon, lat) = ( -4.48803, 12.37762)

Projected extent (in cartographic coordinates):
width (km) = 12.74
height (km) = 9.47
perimeter (km) = 44.42
area (sq. km) = 120.64


WAC monochrome 100mpp mosaic draped on top of the global WAC-derived elevation model.
Scene elevation (meters): min = -2015.00, max = -759.00