The Destruction of Small Lunar Craters

Abstract The paper discusses three types of processes of destruction of small lunar craters: (1) destruction by overlapping craters; (2) destruction due to filling with ejecta from neighboring and remote craters; and (3) destruction due to the displacement of surface material by various slope processes. These processes act together, but the role of each in a specific situation and at different stages of the evolution of a crater may change. Their intensity over the past three billion years of the Moon’s history has been noticeably lower than in previous eras. This circumstance needs be taken into account when estimating the time of the potential existence of craters in different periods of the Moon’s history.