Moon Features

identify the Moon’s principal features, including the Sea of Tranquility, Ocean of Storms, Sea of Crises, the craters Tycho, Copernicus and Kepler, and the Apennine mountain range (Latin names are acceptable)
distinguish between the lunar seas (maria) and highlands (terrae)
demonstrate an understanding of the origin of lunar seas and craters
demonstrate an understanding that the relative numbers of craters in the seas and highlands implies different ages of these features
describe the nature of rilles and wrinkle ridges

Put your cursor over this image to see the places on the Moon you need to know. You could show off and learn the Latin names but just the English names are acceptable, e.g. Mare Tranquillitatis for the Sea of Tranquillity.

Craters

Craters on the Moon are due to the impact of meteorites. Icy rocks in space, often the trails of comets. Because the moon has no atmosphere many more hit the surface than do on Earth. Nearly all craters that have formed on Earth due to impacts have been weathered away though there are a few to be seen. Around the large craters we can see splash lines left by debris that was thrown up at the impact. The meteorites themselves are melted by the impact. Larger craters are named after prominent figures in astronomy.

Maria

The large dark patches are called maria, Latin for seas. (singular = mare) These are where massive impacts took place resulting in a lot of molten rock rising to the surface. When this rock cooled it left dark patches. Notice there are much few smaller impact craters in these areas suggesting that the surface is younger, i.e. it formed at a later time.

The maria are lowlands surrounded by terrae or highlands.

Other Features

	Rille is a German word meaning "groove". Rilles are trenches several kilometres wide and hundreds of metres deep. Faults on the lunar surface caused by the collapse of lava tunnels. Apollo 15 explored the edge of the Hadley Rille using the Lunar Rover. At one point it almost accidentally drove into it.
	Wrinkle Ridges are up to 200m high and 30km long formed as the lunar crust cooled