Wrinkle-ridge

Lunar crater Krieger and vicinity, showing wrinkle ridges in the surrounding mare and sinuous rilles along the left edge.

A wrinkle ridge is a type of feature commonly found on lunar maria. These features are low, sinuous ridges formed on the mare surface that can extend for up to several hundred kilometers. Wrinkle ridges are tectonic features created when the basaltic lava first cooled and contracted. They frequently outline ring structures buried within the mare; follow circular patterns outlining the mare, or intersect protruding peaks. They are sometimes called veins due to their resemblance to the veins that protrude from beneath the skin. These are found near craters.

Wrinkle ridges are named with the Latin designation dorsum (plural dorsa). The standard IAU nomenclature uses the names of people to identify wrinkle ridges on the Moon. Thus the Dorsa Burnet are named for Thomas Burnet, and the Dorsum Owen is named after George Owen of Henllys.

Wrinkle ridges can also be found on Mars, for example in Chryse Planitia, as well as on several of the asteroids that have been visited by spacecraft, as well as Mercury, and a couple of moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

See also

• List of features on the Moon
• Planetary nomenclature

References

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