De Gasparis (crater)
Encyclopedia
de Gasparis is a lunar
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

 that is located in the southwest part of the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

. It lies to the southwest of the crater Cavendish
Cavendish (crater)
Cavendish is a lunar crater that is located in the southwest part of the Moon, to the southwest of the larger crater Mersenius. It lies between the smaller craters Henry to the west-northwest and de Gasparis to the east-southeast....

 and south of Mersenius
Mersenius (crater)
Mersenius is a lunar crater that is located to the west of the Mare Humorum, in the southwestern part of the Moon. To the southwest is the crater Cavendish, and to the south-southeast lies Liebig. Mersenius is 84 kilometers in diameter and 2.3 kilometers deep...

.

The rim of de Gasparis is worn and eroded, and the interior has been flooded by basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

ic lava
Lava
Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

. The surviving outer rim reaches a maximum altitude of about 0.8 km.

This crater is notable for the formation of rille
Rille
Rille is typically used to describe any of the long, narrow depressions in the lunar surface that resemble channels. Typically a rille can be up to several kilometers wide and hundreds of kilometers in length...

s that criss-cross the floor and the surrounding surface. This system of clefts in the surface is designated Rimae de Gasparis, and they span an area of about 130 kilometers in diameter. The rilles are thought to have been created due to tectonic faults deep below the surface. As they cut across de Gasparis, this indicates that they were formed after the crater.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater mid-point that is closest to de Gasparis.
de Gasparis Latitude Longitude Diameter
A 26.7° S 51.3° W 37 km
B 27.0° S 52.5° W 12 km
C 26.3° S 51.7° W 6 km
D 25.7° S 50.1° W 4 km
E 26.4° S 49.4° W 7 km
F 26.3° S 49.3° W 8 km
G 27.0° S 49.3° W 6 km
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