Re: Lunar rilles

On Sep 20, 3:45 pm, Joe Strout <j...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <1190314567.854445.298...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,

Frogwatch <dboh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I have long accepted the standard idea that lunar rilles are mostly
collapsed lava tubes but after looking at a lot of rille pics I am now
not so sure.

Why? I've looked at a lot of them myself, and am even more convinced
that that's what they are.

However, I cannot accept the odd idea of them being
electrical discharge features on a large scale. I wonder if they
could be related to collapse along faults? Why has this not been
considered more?

Well, that's a fair question. Probably because it doesn't hold water.
When a scientist says, "could it be foo?" and the immediate answer is
"no, it's clearly not foo because of this, this, and that," then you'll
probably never read about it in a journal -- it's just not worth
reporting.

I'm hopeful that with all the upcoming lunar probes (hopefully including
some commercial or prize-entry ones soon!), we'll finally get a good
look at some of these. Hopefully including a big, gaping lava tube
mouth with a reasonably smooth gentle entrance way. Now I just have to
figure out how to lay claim to that place when it's found...

Best,
- Joe

--
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If they are lava tubes, I am surprised we have not seen such a "gaping
mouth" on images from various orbiters because many of them stop and
start in a way that should produce such

.