Jatan’s Space

Share this post

Mount as high as Everest! – Zeeman Mons

blog.jatan.space

Mount as high as Everest! – Zeeman Mons

Jatan Mehta
Mar 18, 2019
Share

Standing tall at 8.8 kilometers, Zeeman Mons on the Moon competes with Earth's Mount Everest.

The Zeeman mountain on the Moon’s farside. Credit: NASA LRO

Zeeman Mons rises 8.8 kilometers above the floor of the namesake crater within which it resides. While mountains on Earth take millions of years to form under the slow process of tectonic plates colliding, mountains on the Moon form near instantly!

Mountains on the Moon typically form when an asteroid/comet impacts the lunar surface. The impactor hits the surface and compresses the material, which then rebounds back up to form a mountain! Many central, high mountains in all large craters on the Moon are formed in this way.

Imagine a mountain rising as high as Mount Everest, but formed near instantly instead of taking millions of years! That's lunar geology for you. Landing in large craters and studying their mountains from material that has slid down to the crater floor is exciting for future lunar landing missions.

KNOW MORE

EXPLORE ON A MAP
Share
Previous
Next
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Jatan Mehta
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing