Rupes
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Discovery Rupes on Mercury
Rupes ( plural : Rupēs , Latin for “chasm”, “furrow” “crack”) is the term in astrogeology according to the planetary nomenclature for elongated canyon-like fault lines , gullies, ditches or terrain steps on the Earth's moon and other celestial bodies of the solar system . As narrow, recessed line structures of up to 400 km in length, they are a sign of tension forces within the rock or ice crust.
On the moon, some of these rupes have more of the character of a stepped terrain than a furrow, such as the rupes Altai and the "long wall" ( rupes recta ). The latter is by no means a 100 km long steep slope, as it appears in the grazing light of a half moon , but only inclined about 10 ° and becomes almost invisible as the sun rises.
Rupēs on the moon
- Rupes Altai
- Rupes Boris
- Rupes Cauchy
- Rupes Kelvin
- Rupes Liebig
- Rupes Mercator
- Rupes Recta
- Rupes Toscanelli .
Examples on other celestial bodies
- Verona Rupes on the Uranus moon Miranda
Web links
- Rupes, rupēs inthe IAU's Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature (WGPSN) / USGS
See also
- Fault line
- Moon groove (Rima)
- Chasma