AS 15-1030 - Tsiolkovsky

This vertical view shows the central part of Tsiolkovsky in more detail. From the nature of the boundary between the dark mare lavas and the lighter materials at the base of the walls and in the central peak, we know that the lavas must have lapped upon and embayed the lighter materials. The relatively level areas of lighter material in the southwest and northwest parts of the floor have a distinctly different texture than the coarse blocky materials of slumped wall that surround the floor elsewhere. Finely cracked, furrowed, and hummocky, they closely resemble parts of the floor of the crater King. They probably consist of impact melt that solidified to form the original floor of Tsiolkovsky before it was flooded by mare lavas.