Distribution of Buried Volcanic Deposits in the Schiller–Schickard Region of the Moon

Abstract Cryptomaria are ancient volcanic units on the Moon that are key to understanding early lunar thermal history but are difficult to study because they have been buried and obscured from direct view by later impact ejecta. The Schiller–Schickard region is one of the most studied locations of cryptomaria because evidence for cryptomare deposits exist in a variety of datasets, but the three-dimensional distribution of deposits at local scales is debated. Here, we study cryptomare distribution within Schiller–Schickard at local scales using image data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera data and FeO abundance maps from Kaguya and Clementine datasets. We map dark halo craters (DHCs) in this region between 30°–60°S and 290°–320°E that excavate through surface material and reveal darker material with higher FeO abundances in the crater ejecta. These findings show 531 such craters ranging from 0.1 to 22.6 km in diameter, which reveal a highly heterogeneous distribution of cryptomaria throughout the region in basin and nonbasin settings that are buried as shallow as 8 m beneath the surface and may be as deep as 1.8 km. We compare our results to previous studies that used radar, mineralogical, gravity, and topography data to map cryptomaria in Schiller–Schickard, finding that between 3% and 26% of this region’s area contains cryptomaria as inferred from the DHC inventory. This comparison reveals new, local sites of potential cryptomaria and shows the most promising locations for a potential landed mission that studies cryptomaria from the ground.