Was There a War on the Moon?
This is a crater named Picard in Mare Crisium. It is an old, partially inundated (lava filled) crater that occurred sometime after Crisium was formed. At one time it was completely dark like the segment inside the crater wall between 9 and 11 o'clock. Then something happened to cause the dark regolith inside the crater to be scattered outward over the walls, exposing the lighter, unaged regolith underneath. It also consists of scattered lighter regolith covering older darker regolith. Notice there is a oval "patch" in the center of the crater with odd highlights. This oval patch might be the remnants of a volcanic shield that explosively scattered a lighter ash over the surrounding area. This would be highly unusual tectonics, for a shield volcano to form inside an impact crater or scatter ejecta. However it may be possible. Check out the Prune Hypothesis.
Another explanation is the oval is a flattened dome in a rich mining area called Crisium. The odd highlights are fragments of the destroyed dome, reflecting the overhead sun into Clems UV-Vis cameras lens. The dome construction could not have caused the ray system. Perhaps it's distruction caused the rays. What type of bomb could flatten a dome and cause rays in a vacuum? The simplest answer is an explosive surrounded by an inert "pusher" material. This design allows a compression wave of solid particles expanding outward from the point of the explosion. This same technique can be used in a focused explosion for maximum compression from above. A purpose designed "Dome Buster".
But let me propose the geologic solution. For Picard of Crisium I propose a rather complex series of events over time. The Mare formed from the reaction to the SP-A impact. Another impactor struck the newly formed, just crusted over Crisium, making Picard. Picard cooled and crusted over, but an impact on the Far side of the moon or some other mechanism, caused Picard to release more lava. It weeped from the weakest part of the crater center causing a low lying irregular dome. Billions of years later it was hit by a loose cluster of dust or loosely packed ice. The force of the impact blew away the regolith and scouring the top of the central dome but leaving no crater. (SEE NOTE BELOW)
There are legends, recorded by the sumerians and Indus, and as written about by people like Z. Sitchin in his book "Wars of Gods and Men," that indicate the moon was a battleground between different factions of "gods". Supposedly these factions were of different racial or ethnic roots who had a major falling out. Then there was a war on the Moon. Is this evidence of that encounter? I prefer the natural solution until other evidence is encountered.
NOTE - The Other Evidence:
An evaluation of Apollo negatives, have revealed that Picard is far stranger that Clem led me to believe. There are images that show that Picard is a crater within a crater. This crater has some features that will require futher study.
Return to Strange Page
Return to Clem Home Page
Return to VGL Home Page