Rupes

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