Pitatus is one of the FFC (Floor Fractured Craters) floor craters fractured I chased a long time.

It falls into the category VI described by Schultz, who are shallow floor craters with fractures surrounding the inner edge of the wall.

Schultz found 206 of these craters in 1976 and classified them into six distinct groups based on the depth of the crater, fracture pattern and type of floor.

But what are FFC?

 Are a class of lunar craters characterized by anomalously shallow floors cut by radial fractures, concentric and / or polygonal; Additional interior features are pits, ridges, and material spots on the floor. Two formation mechanisms have been proposed, the floor elevation in response to magmatic intrusion and sill training, and fine ground in response to the viscous relaxation temperature triggered.

A study combines data of the new Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) probe Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) to characterize and classify the population of FFCs and map their distribution on the moon, using variations in the morphology of the fractured floor of the crater and its regional distribution proposed to investigate the formation mechanism.

The distribution of categories of FFC shows an evolution of the crater morphology of areas adjacent to the lunar impact basins to areas lunar mountains. The study suggests that this trend is in favor of forming the surface magmatic intrusion and the thickness of the training-crustal determines the magnitude of the magma driving pressure, and therefore of the ground elevation at high magnitude or convex profile for low magnitude. Forecasts from previous studies of the viscous relaxation modeling are incompatible with altimetry profiles observed of FFCs. Hence the study analysis favors the formation of the FFC shallow magmatic intrusion, with the varieties of morphologies in the FFC being closely linked to the location and thickness of the crust and the intrusion driving pressure.

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

Authors: Jozwiak, Lauren M .; Head, James W .; Zuber, Maria T .; Smith, David E .; Neumann, Gregory A.

Adaptation and text: Avani Soares