3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
[PPS06-P21] The Lava Tube Candidate in Lunar North Oceanus Procellarum Region: The Structure and the Origin Process
Keywords:Moon, Lava tube, Gravity
Lunar lava tubes are sinuous rilles without collapse portions, and as natural caves, are priority candidates for lunar exploration. Gravity data obtained by Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission could allow us to study these sub-surface structures. A complex system of sinuous rilles potentially containing lava tubes is found in northern Oceanus Procellarum (NOP). Thus, we applied a gravity inversion algorithm and a forward constraint in this region to rebuild the density structure of a potential lava tube, Rima Mairan lava tube. The results indicate that this lava tube candidate is at a depth of 7.5 km beneath the lunar surface, and has a bowl-shape cross-section with a width of 3.5 km ~ 4 km and a height of 1.13 km ~ 1.33 km, as constrained by the gravity anomaly amplitude (~-20 mGal) on the surface. Furthermore, a positive quasi-circular gravity anomaly at the western end of the Rima Mairan lava tube may shed a light on the origins of this geological structure and may indicate additional mechanisms of lava transportation.