Lunar Taruntius Crater System Borders Northwestern Mare Fecunditatis

Summary: The lunar Taruntius Crater system borders the northwestern Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity) in the near side’s eastern hemisphere.

oblique view of Taruntius Crater shows central peak complex, concentric ridges and Cameron Crater on northwestern rim; taken with 70mm Hasselblad by Apollo 10 mission, film magazine 30 (Q); NASA ID AS10-30-4434: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), No known copyright restrictions, via U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

The lunar Taruntius Crater system borders the northwestern Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fecundity) in the eastern hemisphere of the moon’s near side.

Taruntius occupies the near side’s first, or northeastern, quadrant. In his Atlas of the Universe (2005: page 54), English amateur astronomer Sir Patrick Moore (March 4, 1923-Dec. 9, 2012) described this quadrant along the lunar eastern, or leading, limb as largely comprising maria (seas), the moon’s dark, basaltic plains.

Mare Fecunditatis is centered at minus 7.83 degrees south latitude and 53.67 degrees east longitude, according to the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. The equator-straddling mare’s northernmost and southernmost latitudes extend to 6.11 degrees north and minus 21.7 degrees south, respectively. Its dark plains claim easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 63.34 degrees east and 40.77 degrees east, respectively. Mare Fecunditatis claims a diameter of 840.35 kilometers.

In addition to Mare Fecunditatis, Taruntius Crater’s maria-rich neighborhood includes Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) and Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). Sea of Tranquility lies to the crater system’s west. Mare Crisium is located to the southeast.

Mare Crisium is centered at 16.18 degrees north latitude, 59.1 degrees east longitude. The Sea of Crises obtains northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 24.53 degrees north and 9.69 degrees north, respectively. Easternmost and westernmost longitudes stretch to 68.53 degrees east and 49.51 degrees east, respectively. Mare Crisium’s diameter measures 555.92 kilometers.

Mare Tranquillitatis is centered at 8.35 degrees north latitude, 30.83 degrees east longitude. The equator-straddling mare obtains northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 19.37 degrees north and minus 4.05 degrees south, respectively. Its easternmost and westernmost longitudes are registered at 45.49 degrees east and 16.92 degrees east, respectively. As the largest of Taruntius Crater’s three neighboring maria, Sea of Tranquility measures a diameter of 875.75 kilometers.

Taruntius is centered at 5.5 degrees north latitude and 46.54 east longitude. As a northern hemisphere impact crater, Taruntius registers northernmost and southernmost latitudes of 6.45 degrees north and 4.56 degrees north, respectively. As an eastern hemisphere occupant, Taruntius claims easternmost and westernmost longitudes of 47.49 degrees east and 45.59 degrees east, respectively.

Sir Patrick Moore recognized Taruntius as a fine exemplar of a concentric crater. The crater’s shallow floor presents a summit-pitted central peak complex and a ring of concentric ridges. Rilles (German: grooves) fracture the floor.

The crater’s diameter measures 57.32 kilometers, according to the IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. In their 1996 article on Taruntius, planetary geologists Robert W. Wichman and Peter H. Schultz placed crater rim heights at approximately 900 to 1,500 meters (page 196). The width of the crater’s smooth, uplifted floor approximates 28 to 30 kilometers. The unusually shallow crater’s apparent depth only dips to about 400 meters.

Its features qualify Taruntius as a floor-fractured crater (FFC). In 1976, Schultz provided the first detailed description of this class of a lunar craters from his examination of Lunar Orbiter program (1966-1967) and Apollo mission images. Schultz identified 206 examples of floor-fractured craters and found that floor-fractured craters closely correlated spatially with maria (pages 241, 265). Floor-uplift by hot magma accounts for the anomalously shallow basins that characterize floor-fractured craters.

The Taruntius Crater system was credited with 22 satellites until 1973. In that year, Taruntius C, D and M upgraded to craters with official names of Cameron, Watts and Lawrence, respectively. Cameron is located on Taruntius Crater’s northwestern rim.

In 1976, the IAU recognized Taruntius A, E, G and N as Asada, Zähringer, Anville and Smithson, respectively. Their removal from the Taruntius complex reduced Taruntius Crater’s parentage to its current tally of 15 satellites.

The IAU approved Taruntius as the crater's official name in 1935. Taruntius honors Roman astrologer, astronomer and philosopher Lucius Tarutius Firmanus, whose accomplishments included calculating March 24 as the birthday of Rome's founder, Romulus. He placed the time and date of the founding of Rome at between the second and third daytime hours on Oct. 4, 754 BCE.

The takeaway for the lunar Taruntius Crater system’s location on northwestern Mare Fecunditatis is that the floor-fractured crater occupies a maria-rich neighborhood in the first, or northeastern, quadrant of the moon’s near side.

Taruntius Crater (mid-upper right, between 0 and 10 degrees) on northwestern Mare Fecunditatis, southwest of Mare Crisium and east of Mare Tranquillitatis; Near Side Hemisphere, U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2769: Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Publications

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

oblique view of Taruntius Crater shows central peak complex, concentric ridges and Cameron Crater on northwestern rim; taken with 70mm Hasselblad by Apollo 10 mission, film magazine 30 (Q); NASA ID AS10-30-4434: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), No known copyright restrictions, via U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) @ https://nara.getarchive.net/media/as10-30-4434-apollo-10-apollo-10-mission-image-crater-taruntius-c42598

Color-coded topographic and shaded relief map of lunar near and far side’s eastern hemisphere shows Taruntius Crater (mid-upper right, between 0 and 10 degrees) on northwestern Mare Fecunditatis, southwest of Mare Crisium and east of Mare Tranquillitatis; Near Side Hemisphere, U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2769: Public Domain, via U.S. Geological Survey Publications @ https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i2769/

For further information:

Consolmagno, Guy; and Dan M. Davis. Turn Left at Orion. Fourth edition. Cambridge UK; New York NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

International Astronomical Union. “Anville.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/307

International Astronomical Union. “Asada.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/413

International Astronomical Union. “Cameron.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/986

International Astronomical Union. “Lawrence.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3308

International Astronomical Union. “Mare Crisium.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3671

International Astronomical Union. “Mare Fecunditatis.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3673

International Astronomical Union. “Mare Tranquillitatis.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/3691

International Astronomical Union. “Smithson.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/5605

International Astronomical Union. “Taruntius.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/5878

International Astronomical Union. “Watts.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6498

International Astronomical Union. “Zähringer.” USGS Astrogeology Science Center > Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Last updated Oct. 18, 2010.
Available @ https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6772

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U.S. Geological Survey. Color-Coded Topography and Shaded Relief Map of the Lunar Near Side and Far Side Hemispheres. U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2769. Page last modified Nov. 30, 2016. Flagstaff AZ: U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Science Center, 2003.
Available via USGS Publications Warehouse @ https://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i2769/

Wichman, R. (Robert) W.; and P. (Peter) H. Schultz. “Crater-Centered Laccoliths on the Moon: Modeling Intrusion Depth and Magmatic Pressure at the Crater Taruntius.” Icarus, vol. 122, issue 1, article no. 0118 (July 1996): 193-199.
Available @ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e360/ca1daa2a05db7bae1b1082e2a9c008f895f0.pdf