Geology of Atlas crater, the prime landing site of the Emirates Lunar Mission Rashid-1 rover
Abstract
Located at 46.7°N, 44.5°E, Atlas is a well-known floor-fractured impact crater which records a complex volcanic history. Emplaced ~3.82 Gy ago within the lunar highlands, the 87 km diameter crater is characterized by the presence of collapsed walls, a rough and undulated floor marked with fractures, a ~1 km central peak complex, and two pyroclastic deposits. The evolution of Atlas crater is related to those of a nearby ~1.1 km high unnamed dome and of the Hercules impact crater, dated at 3.71 Gy. Cratering equations and rheological models were used to specify some aspects of the crater’s geologic history. Atlas crater tapped into a pluton at a depth <13.5 km, dominated by mixed plagioclase, pyroxene and spinel VNIR signatures, and was later intruded by magma that stalled at ~2 km depth. Atlas crater lies in the center of a regional thermophysical anomaly measured in Diviner dataset, suggesting compositional or textural anomalies in the subsurface. The unnamed dome, emplaced by lavas as viscous as those forming known lunar silicic domes, could provide clues to this anomaly, as it may evidence the presence of more evolved alkalic or silicic rocks in the area. In addition, telescopic photometry and spectropolarimetry highlight the presence of more densely packed and either larger and/or rougher regolith grains in the pyroclastic deposits. Because of its high scientific value, Atlas was selected as the prime landing site of the Emirates Lunar Mission Rashid-1 rover, which made a hard landing on the Moon in April 2023.
Related
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- Long-baseline ATLAS photometry of the seven main-belt asteroid targets of the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt
- Deep learning maps of fresh crater ejecta on Mercury
- High-frequency subsurface-penetrating radar investigation of the shallow subsurface at the Zhurong landing site
BibTeX
@article{flahaut2026geology,
title = {{Geology of Atlas crater, the prime landing site of the Emirates Lunar Mission Rashid-1 rover}},
author = {Jessica Flahaut and Christian Wöhler and Marine Joulaud and Evelyn Füri and Megha Bhatt and Sylvain Breton and Sebastian Els and Sara Almaeeni and Hamad Almarzooqi},
journal = {Planetary Research},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.53480/4e7a-4y94},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05732002v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Geology of Atlas crater, the prime landing site of the Emirates Lunar Mission Rashid-1 rover
AU - Jessica Flahaut
AU - Christian Wöhler
AU - Marine Joulaud
AU - Evelyn Füri
AU - Megha Bhatt
AU - Sylvain Breton
AU - Sebastian Els
AU - Sara Almaeeni
AU - Hamad Almarzooqi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/27
JO - Planetary Research
DO - 10.53480/4e7a-4y94
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05732002v1
AB - Located at 46.7°N, 44.5°E, Atlas is a well-known floor-fractured impact crater which records a complex volcanic history. Emplaced ~3.82 Gy ago within the lunar highlands, the 87 km diameter crater is characterized by the presence of collapsed walls, a rough and undulated floor marked with fractures, a ~1 km central peak complex, and two pyroclastic deposits. The evolution of Atlas crater is related to those of a nearby ~1.1 km high unnamed dome and of the Hercules impact crater, dated at 3.71 Gy. Cratering equations and rheological models were used to specify some aspects of the crater’s geologic history. Atlas crater tapped into a pluton at a depth <13.5 km, dominated by mixed plagioclase, pyroxene and spinel VNIR signatures, and was later intruded by magma that stalled at ~2 km depth. Atlas crater lies in the center of a regional thermophysical anomaly measured in Diviner dataset, suggesting compositional or textural anomalies in the subsurface. The unnamed dome, emplaced by lavas as viscous as those forming known lunar silicic domes, could provide clues to this anomaly, as it may evidence the presence of more evolved alkalic or silicic rocks in the area. In addition, telescopic photometry and spectropolarimetry highlight the presence of more densely packed and either larger and/or rougher regolith grains in the pyroclastic deposits. Because of its high scientific value, Atlas was selected as the prime landing site of the Emirates Lunar Mission Rashid-1 rover, which made a hard landing on the Moon in April 2023.
ER -