Advances in Earth Science ›› 2018, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (9): 885-897. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2018.09.0885

• Orginal Article •     Next Articles

A Preliminary Study of Classification Method on Lunar Topography and Landforms

Weiming Cheng 1, 2( ), Qiangyi Liu 1, 2, Jiao Wang 3, Wenxin Gao 1, 4, Jianzhong Liu 5   

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3.School of Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China
    4.School of Civil Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology,Lanzhou 730050, China
    5.Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550081, China
  • Received:2017-04-18 Revised:2018-08-06 Online:2018-10-20 Published:2018-10-23
  • About author:

    First author:Cheng Weiming(1973-), male, Tianshui City, Gansu Province, Professor. Research areas include digital geomorphology and lunar topography and landforms. E-mail: chengwm@lreis.ac.cn

  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China "Classification method on lunar morphological types"(No.41571388);The Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences "Digital Moon and Earth-Moon system evolution"(No.XDPB11).

Weiming Cheng, Qiangyi Liu, Jiao Wang, Wenxin Gao, Jianzhong Liu. A Preliminary Study of Classification Method on Lunar Topography and Landforms[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2018, 33(9): 885-897.

Lunar topography and landform, resulting from endogenous and exogenous geophysical processes of various spatial and temporal scales, carry information of these processes and target properties. Geoscientists use morphometric analysis at different scales to study lunar topography, which is one of the four scientific objectives of China's lunar exploration project. This article first reviewed the lunar topographic types from different researchers, analyzed classifying method and progress, discussed geological mapping method of 1∶ 5 000 000 complied by United States Geological Survey in the 1970s. In consideration of the present situation of the lunar surface morphological characteristics, the pattern of macroscopic forcing, morphologic variation and combination characteristics and function way, etc., a matrix combining multi-stage classification method was put forward based on the characteristics of the topography and geologic age, which included 7 geologic ages and 14 morphologic classes. Geological ages can be divided into Copernican System (C), Copernican-Eartosthenian System (CE), Eartosthenian System (E), Eartosthenian-Imbrian System (EI), Imbrian System (I), Imbrian-PreImbrian System (IpI) and Pre-Imbrian System (pI). As to topographic types, the first class can be divided into lunar mare, lunar basin, lunar terra and lunar crater. As to their second class according to morphological differences, the lunar basin can be divided into basin plain and circum-basin, and lunar mare can be divided into mare plain and mare dome; lunar terra can be divided into terra plain, plateau and hill, and craters can be divided into main sequence crater, crater plain, secondary crater, crater chains and clusters, rayed craters, irregular crater and undivided crater. Thus, 46 subclasses including geologic and morphologic features were obtained in this classification system. The test mapping method was addressed in Sheet H010, which shows the combination classification method is reasonable.

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