"With a bit of imagination, you may occasionally see a man lurking in the outlines of the moon’s darkest regions. This shadowy figure, so much a part of myth and legend, isn’t real. But “ghost craters” are real. Some mysterious event in the past turned many of the moon’s craters into ghosts.
The moon’s two main regions are differentiated by brightness. Astronomers call the lighter-colored regions the lunar highlands, due to their higher elevation. The darker regions are the lunar maria. Maria is the Latin plural word for seas. Galileo gave them this name four centuries ago, thinking the maria might have been bodies of water.
The highlands are rugged and saturated with craters, while the maria are mostly flat with far fewer craters. Since most lunar craters probably are the result of impacts, it seems unlikely that a barrage of bodies collided with the highlands but spared the maria. A more likely possibility is suggested by other subtle differences between the highlands and maria.
Indeed, astronomers recognize that the circular shape of the maria resulted from large impact events, which they distinguish from normal, smaller craters by calling the larger ones “impact basins.”
The damage caused during the formation of these impact basins was immense. They not only obliterated any previous craters but also fractured the moon so deeply that the cracks reached down to the molten layers far below the surface. The fractures provided conduits for molten rock to rise to the lunar surface and then fill the impact basins. The lava eventually cooled and hardened, leaving the maria we see today. Before the basins were filled with lava, however, many objects continued to strike the moon, leaving smaller craters inside the basins. Ghost craters are the faint outlines of these small craters, which were nearly covered by the lava that later filled the maria.
The early heavy bombardment was dominated by smaller impacts, resulting in craters all over the moon. These craters can still be seen covering the highlands. During the late heavy bombardment, a series of large bodies struck the moon, leaving behind the impact basins.
Before the later heavy bombardment, the elevation of the moon’s surface was relatively uniform. But the volcanic material that rose from the interior was much denser than the rock on the surface. This rock dragged down the newly formed maria, leaving the surrounding highlands at higher elevation.
This distribution suggests a rapid and/or non-random process. It looks as though the meteorites struck the northern part of the moon in just a few days, before the moon had time to rotate far (it rotates once every thirty days). If the maria were the result of random processes over a long time, they would be more equally distributed over the moon’s surface.
Evidence in support of this view is the large number of craters preserved in the earth’s fossil record from the time of the year-long Flood. We must conclude that a heavy bombardment struck the earth at the time of the Flood." AIG
The moon’s two main regions are differentiated by brightness. Astronomers call the lighter-colored regions the lunar highlands, due to their higher elevation. The darker regions are the lunar maria. Maria is the Latin plural word for seas. Galileo gave them this name four centuries ago, thinking the maria might have been bodies of water.
The highlands are rugged and saturated with craters, while the maria are mostly flat with far fewer craters. Since most lunar craters probably are the result of impacts, it seems unlikely that a barrage of bodies collided with the highlands but spared the maria. A more likely possibility is suggested by other subtle differences between the highlands and maria.
Indeed, astronomers recognize that the circular shape of the maria resulted from large impact events, which they distinguish from normal, smaller craters by calling the larger ones “impact basins.”
The damage caused during the formation of these impact basins was immense. They not only obliterated any previous craters but also fractured the moon so deeply that the cracks reached down to the molten layers far below the surface. The fractures provided conduits for molten rock to rise to the lunar surface and then fill the impact basins. The lava eventually cooled and hardened, leaving the maria we see today. Before the basins were filled with lava, however, many objects continued to strike the moon, leaving smaller craters inside the basins. Ghost craters are the faint outlines of these small craters, which were nearly covered by the lava that later filled the maria.
The early heavy bombardment was dominated by smaller impacts, resulting in craters all over the moon. These craters can still be seen covering the highlands. During the late heavy bombardment, a series of large bodies struck the moon, leaving behind the impact basins.
Before the later heavy bombardment, the elevation of the moon’s surface was relatively uniform. But the volcanic material that rose from the interior was much denser than the rock on the surface. This rock dragged down the newly formed maria, leaving the surrounding highlands at higher elevation.
This distribution suggests a rapid and/or non-random process. It looks as though the meteorites struck the northern part of the moon in just a few days, before the moon had time to rotate far (it rotates once every thirty days). If the maria were the result of random processes over a long time, they would be more equally distributed over the moon’s surface.
Evidence in support of this view is the large number of craters preserved in the earth’s fossil record from the time of the year-long Flood. We must conclude that a heavy bombardment struck the earth at the time of the Flood." AIG
For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Romans 8:22
