Montes Cordillera is a mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 range on 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...

. This feature forms the outer wall of peaks that surround the Mare Orientale

Mare Orientale

Mare Orientale is one of the most striking large scale lunar features, resembling a target ring bull's-eye. Located on the extreme western edge of the lunar nearside, this impact basin is difficult to see from an Earthbound perspective.Material from this basin was not sampled by the Apollo program...

 impact basin, the inner ring being formed by the Montes Rook

Montes Rook

Montes Rook is a ring-shaped mountain range that lies along the western limb of the Moon, crossing over to the far side. It completely encircles the Mare Orientale, and forms part of a massive impact basin feature...

. The center of the range is located at selenographic coordinates 17.5° S, 81.6° W, and the diameter is 574 km (356.7 mi).

This range of peaks lies across the southwestern limb of the Moon, so that they are observed from the side from Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

. The western extreme is approximately 116° W, on the far side of the Moon. The northern part of the range lies just to the south of the lunar equator

Equator

An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

, while the southern extent reaches about 38° S. The inner face of the range is distinguished by an uneven, ring-shaped plain surrounding the Montes Rook, while the outer extent apparently consists of a wide blanket of ejecta

Ejecta

Ejecta can mean:*In volcanology, particles that came out of a volcanic vent, traveled through the air or under water, and fell back on the ground surface or on the ocean floor...

 features deposited during the formation of the Mare Orientale. These have formed various ridges and valleys radial to the mare, and have heavily modified nearby pre-existing crater formations.

Along the inner side of the range to the northeast is a small lunar mare

Lunar mare

The lunar maria are large, dark, basaltic plains on Earth's Moon, formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. They were dubbed maria, Latin for "seas", by early astronomers who mistook them for actual seas. They are less reflective than the "highlands" as a result of their iron-rich compositions, and...

 feature named the Lacus Autumni

Lacus Autumni

Lacus Autumni is a region of lunar mare that lies near the western limb of the Moon. Along this side of the lunar surface is a huge impact basin centered on the Mare Orientale. Two concentric mountain rings surround the Orientale mare, the inner ring being named Montes Rook and an outer ring...

, or Autumn Lake. To the northeast of the range here is the crater pair of Schlüter

Schlüter (crater)

Schlüter is a lunar impact crater that is located near the western limb of the Moon's near side. It lies along the northwestern face of the Montes Cordillera mountain range that encircles the Mare Orientale. Nearly attached to the eastern rim is the damaged crater Hartwig.Schlüter has an irregular...

 and Hartwig

Hartwig (lunar crater)

Hartwig is a lunar crater that is located near the western limb of the Moon. It is attached to the eastern rim of the prominent crater Schlüter, to the northeast of the Montes Cordillera mountain range that surrounds the Mare Orientale...

. The latter crater has been significantly modified by ejecta from Mare Orientale, while the former is a younger feature formed after this supposed impact.

The southeastern portion of the range contains the craters Krasnov

Krasnov (crater)

Krasnoff is a lunar impact crater that is located in the southeastern part of the Montes Cordillera range, near the southwest limb of the Moon. From the Earth this crater appears foreshortened, and visibility can be affected by libration...

 and Shaler

Shaler (crater)

Shaler is a lunar impact crater that lies on the southeast interior edge of the Montes Cordillera mountain ring that surrounds the immense Mare Orientale formation. It is located near the southwest limb of the Moon on the near side, and so is viewed nearly from on edge from the Earth...

. To the southeast of the latter formation is a radial valley formation named the Vallis Bouvard

Vallis Bouvard

Vallis Bouvard is a 284-km-long valley on the Moon, centered at . It begins at the southern rim of the crater Shaler, and winds its way to the south-southeast towards Baade. This is one of several such valleys that radiate away from the southeast edge of the Mare Orientale circular impact basin,...

. Further to the south and east are another pair of radial valleys named the Vallis Baade

Vallis Baade

Vallis Baade is a 203 km long sinuous valley on the Moon running south-southeast from the crater Baade and centered at...

 and Vallis Inghirami. A similar radial valley, Vallis Bohr

Vallis Bohr

Vallis Bohr is a valley on the Moon stretching due south of the crater Einstein. This wide cleft has a length of about 80 kilometers, and is radial to the Mare Orientale impact basin further to the south. The selenographic coordinates of this feature are ....

, lies to the north of the Montes Cordillera, to the west of the crater Bohr

Bohr (crater)

Bohr is a lunar crater that is located near the western lunar limb, in the area that is affected by librations. It is attached to the southwestern rim of the larger, eroded Vasco da Gama formation, and to the southeast of the crater Einstein....

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The name Cordillera means a chain of mountains in the Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

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