Word: lavas
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...valuable as they were scenic. A panoramic shot of the mountains, for example, showed distinct layering on the different slopes. But surprisingly, the layers slant in one direction in some places and take a sharply different course in others. Since the layers were probably laid down by the same lava flows, why did they veer off in different directions? The most likely explanation, according to Paul Gast, chief of lunar and planetary science at Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center, is that these flows probably preceded the cataclysmic event (presumably a large meteor impact) that created the Sea of Rains...
Lunar Tumble. To Egyptian-born Geologist Farouk El Baz, who helped train the astronauts, the layering meant that the rille was not created by the collapse of a single lava tube, as some lunar scientists have suggested, but by a number of separate lava flows. Not so, said Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, a professional geologist himself and a member of Apollo 15's back-up crew. He insisted that the rille could just as well have been the result of faulting, or cracking, of the moon's surface as it cooled...
...little later, Scott was on his knees again, intentionally. Using a hammer, he chipped a large chunk off a big, lava-like boulder sitting on the rille's ledge. Then he tucked the piece under his arm like a football and galloped enthusiastically back to the rover. Scientists in Houston shared Scott's exuberance. He had apparently snared a valuable chunk of the moon's bedrock...
...southeastern edge of the Sea of Rains, the perilous highland landing site is farther north of the lunar equator than any area yet trod by man. It offers a scientifically tantalizing sampling of four major types of lunar features: a mare (or lunar sea of once molten lava), an alpine range called the Apennines, a deep, snaking rille or gorge and a variety of puzzling smaller mounds and craters. Scientists hope to recover fragments of the moon's original crust. The landscape could supply scientists with new clues to the origin of the moon and to the birth...
...Rille, one of the many canyon-like features on the moon that have long puzzled scientists. Most experts now dismiss the idea that rilles were carved out by water, like the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos, N. Mex., which they resemble; instead, the canyons may be the result of lava flows. To help settle the argument, the astronauts plan to drive part way down the slope, which begins at a relatively gentle incline of about 10°. As the going gets rougher for the rover, they may leave it behind and walk the rest of the way into the rille...