The Distribution and the Probable Origin of the Lunar Craters1

ABSTRACT It has been shown by L. La Paz that, while members of the special class of ray craters are distributed very nearly at random on the visible portion of the Moon, the same fact does not appear to be true of the typical craters shown on certain representative lunar photographs. He has inferred that not all of the craters shown on such photographs are of impact origin. In the present paper, the nature of the distribution of 3,112 typical lunar craters listed by Blagg is investigated. It is found that the distribution of these craters is very probably a non‐random one. Such preferential distribution is unfavorable to the hypothesis that the lunar craters studied in the present paper are all of meteoritic origin. In view of the known occurrence on the Earth of craters of both volcanic and meteoritic origin, it is reasonable to conclude that craters of both types may exist on our near neighbor, the Moon.