JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICALRESEARCH VOL. 69, No.

12 JUNE 15, 1964

An Interpretation of SchrSter's Valley

and Other Lunar Sinuous Rills

WINIFRED SAWTELL CAMERON

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

Abstract. Several more or less unsatisfactory theories have been proposed for the origin
of lunar sinuous rills such as SchrSter's Valley. This paper presents a new explanation of the
formation of these rills, namely, that they are valleys eroded by nu•es ardentes. Character-
istics of the rills, including form and association, are cited in support of this theory. Support-
ing evidence is found in the similarity of the rills to furrows eroded by nu•es ardentes on the
earth.

Pickering [1904] called attention to a rare
classof features on the moon, the sinuousrills,
which he considered to be distinct from the
much larger class of normal rills. The latter
numberin the thousands,and one of their chief
characteristics
is linearity. The radiusof curva-
ture of any segmentis measured in the thou-
sands of kilometers. The sinuous rills, on the
other hand, number in the dozens,accordingto
Pickering, and have several distinctive features:
(1) they are always wider at one end; (2) at
the wide end there is always a pear-shaped
craterlet; (3) the wider end with its craterlet is
nearly always perceptibly higher than the other;
(4) the courseis composedalmost entirely of
curves of very short radius (of the order of a
few kilometers), giving them a zigzag,winding
appearance.
These characteristicswere confirmedby R. E.
Eggletonand H. J. Moore of the U.S. Geologi-
cal Survey for about 25 sinuousrills (communi-
cated by E. Shoemaker).Among the fairly con-
spicuousonesare SchrSter'sValley (Figure 1),
located at approximately 52øE, 25øN (astro-
nomical convention), which ends in the Oceanus
Procellarum,just northeastof the brightestcra-
ter on the moon, Aristarchus; the Hadley rill
(Figure 2) at about 0 ø, 22øN, at the foot of
the lunar Apennines; and the Conon rill (Fig-
ure 3) in the hinterlands of the Apennines at
about 2øW, 16øN. SchrSter'sValley, the largest,
is about 4 km wide at its widest, over 300 m
deep at its deepest,and about 200 km long.
Marius rill is longerthan SchrSter'sValley, but
is much narrower. The rest of the 30 or so sinu-
2423
ous rills are only tens of kilometers long, a few
hundreds of meters wide, and a few tens of
meters deep.
In general, selenologistsattempt to explain
only the normal rills, ignoringthe sinuousrills
and valleys or else consideringthem to be a
peculiar variant. Explanationsfor them in the
literature may be summed up under three
mechanisms:aqueouserosion,faulting, and sub-
sidence.Among the authors who compare the
sinuous rills to river beds, though sometimes
with reservations, are Nelson [1876], Elger
[1895], who cites Birt's analogy to inverted
river beds,Pickering [1904], and Firso# [1960],
who suggestsan underground river. Faulting is
favored by Nasmyth and Carpenter [1874],
Goodacre [1931], Baldwin [1949], and Khaba-
kov [1962]. Advocatesof the subsidencemecha-
nism are Spurt [1948], Kuiper [1959], Fielder
[1961], and Arthur [1962].
Each of thesethree mechanismsfor producing
rills encountersdifficultieswhen applied to the
sinuousfeatures.That of aqueouserosionis the
least tenable, since the relatively high vapor
pressurefor any reasonableliquid at the tem-
peratures of the surfaceof the moon would be
inconsistent with the near-vacuum conditions
there. The available information concerningthe
temperature of its surface,obtained from many
different kinds of observations,makes the pos-
sibility that water in quantity would remain in
liquid form long enoughto produce significant
erosion seem very remote. A further difficulty
with this hypothesisis that branching, when it
does occur, is usually at the lower end of the
2424 WI•T.IFRED SAWTELL CAMERON
•: ::::...::•:•:•:•
........ ....•,,•::•;::,

.......... ...........................
:r...:..:......:.:.::•:
................
:?::>;
•5," ........
•-•..................
........ .
• •)C•''•'•: •
....

Fig. 1. SchrSter'sValley on the moon,a Mount Wilsonphotograph,reproduced from the

Kuiper Atlas (F3c). The two largecratersare Herodotus,directlysouthof the valley, and
Aristarchus(39- and 47-km diameter,respectively).Astronomicalsouthis at the top, west is
at the left, to correspondto the telescopicappearance.

channel (distributary), according to Shaler slip faultingis counterto the evidenceof lack
[1903], rather than at the upper part (con- of distortionin contemporarycratersand fea-
tributary), in analogyto terrestrial rivers. tures in the vicinity.
The suggestionthat sinuousrills are the re- Most hypotheses invokeigneous processes,
in-
sult of intersectionsof planes of faulting con- cluding subsidence, or intrusion of magma in
tradicts their observable topological character. fault planes.Theseare subjectto the sameob-
If this were the cause,it would be expected, jectionsgiven for faulting. The channelis not
at least in some instances,that sharp bends, likely to have been formedby a lava flow, since
presumablydueto intersectingsystemsof faults, this producesa raisedfeature in the landscape,
would find observableexpressionbeyond the el- not a furrow (J. F. Schairer,private communi-
bow of the rill itself. We would expect T and X cation).
intersections,
whenin fact we have L's, V's, and The most significantfeature of the sinuous
U's. We would also expect to see the principal rills is the crater at one end. As nearly as can
directionsof the rill repeated in the pattern, of be determinedwithout hypsometricdata the as-
intersectingridgesand valleys in the immediate sociated crater is at the higher end in every
vicinity. This is not observed.Suchpatterns can case,which stronglysuggests a geneticrelation
be seenin somelocalities,suchas the Apennines, between the two features. SchrSter's Valley
where they affect the linear rills, but they can- originatesin the pear-shapedcrater aptly called
not be seen in the sinuous fills. the:.Cobra Head, whose elevation above the
:.:Nasmythand Carpenter'ssuggestionthat a neighboringplain is about 1000m, accordingto
pre-existing chasmhadbeencontorted by strike- Guillemin [1948] (see Figure 1). The Hadley
 LUNAR SINUOUS RILLS ' 2425

Fig. 2. The Hadley rill from a Lick photograph(taken with the 120-inchCoud• focus).
It is locatedat the foot of the lunarApenninesthat borderMare Imbrium. The smallcrater
it passes around,Hadleye crater,is about5 km in diameter.Astronomical northis at the
bottom, east is at the right, to correspondto the telescopicappearance.

rill starts in an unnamed craterlet in the Apen- A nu•e ardente is a fluidized mixture of gas
nines which can easily be seenin Figure 2. The and dust or ashat very high temperatureand
Conon rill also commences in a cratetier in the relativelyhighdensitywhichissuesfrom a vol-
mountains. The craterlet is masked by shadow canowith explosive force,oftenhorizontallydi-
in Figure 3. Other examplesthat can be clearly rected. This mixture rushesdown the mountain-
seenon appropriate maps and photographsare side with great velocity (of the order of 100
two rills near the crater Bode (near the center km/hr) with actionsimilarto that of a marine
of the moon) and two short onesnear the crater turbidity current excavatinga submarinecan-
Marius in OCeanus Procellarum. The beds of yon.The irregularitiesin the terrainprovidethe
these rills look like channels cut by some sort explanationfor the sinuosityjust as they do for
of fluid. We have rejected as improbable the the coursesof rivers and avalanches.Frequently
idea that water was the fluid. The associationof the nu•e ardente possesses great erosivepower,
crater and rill suggestsvolcanism.The result probablymostlyby abrasion, whichcomesfrom
of volcanicaction might be in the form of lava the transportationof blockswith diametersof
flowsor nu•es ardentes (ash flows). We have re- the order of meters to tens of meters. As long
jectedlava flowsbecausethey form raisedfea- as there is a great deal of gas in the mixture,
tures; hencewe are left with the considerationof the large blocksare buoyedup and suspended
nu•es ardentes. A description of nu•es ardentes by the upwardmotionof the gas,and the ava-
may be helpful to those readerswho are not lanche is almost noiseless[Perret, 1937]. The
familiar 'with this type-of volcanism. ' - depositis 'smooth
because
of ihe greatamount
2426
..•: .. ½. ..........
..:• ..•:•. •-•.:•,•
'. .?•........ ...•. ::•:•:?•.•::F
• .•::•:•
Fig. 3. The Conon rill from a Lice pho•ograph
(taEen with the 36-inch refr,ctor).
of the crater Conon in the Apennines, below the
rill, is 24 Em. Astronomical north is at the bottom,
east is a• the right, to correspondto the •elescopic
appearance.
of ash that usually buries the boulders.Further
in the flow the blocks may slide and roll along
at the bottom; at that time they have signifi-
cant erosivepower, and the floor may appear
roughfrom the depositionof boulders.Accord-
ing to theoreticalstudiesby Lobeck [1939], a
fluid stream has a carrying power proportional
to the sixth powerof its velocity.Nu•es ardentes,
with their tremendousvelocities,illustrate this
extraordinarypowerby transportinghugeblocks
to great distances.Perret [1937] describesthe
channelswhich many of the nu•es ardentesfrom
Mont Pel•e have made. He said, 'The greater
velocity in the center of the avalancheactivated
the emissionof gas and the deposition of ma-
terial, so strongly displayed by earlier clouds,
WINIFRED SAWTELL CAMERON
while on either side the track had been trenched
.::?........
•... ......... • .
by lessbuoyant masses,giving it a cross-section
shaped like a double U.'
Two surprisingfeaturesof nu•es ardentesare
their self-cohesivepower and their ability to
flow great distanceseven on slopeswith grades
of less than I per cent. The cloud does not
spread out and dissipatereadily, but maintains
its narrow contoursfor a surprisinglylong time.
There are gres:telectricaleffects,and Perret
suggeststhat part of the cohesivepower is due
- •:•:•. -•::•..
to electric charge attraction. (Cohesion is also
a property of marine turbidity currents and
avalanches.In Lake Mead, turbidity currents
having a velocity of at least I km/hr flow to
distancesof 125 km. Turbidity currents from
great rivers have been observed to maintain
their identity for great distancesout into the
ocean.)In the nu•esardenteson earth, indraft-
ing of air at the edgesmay alsoplay a part in
confiningthe cloud. Ross a•d Smith [1961]
discuss ash flows in detail.
Aramaki [1956] describesthe trench carved
by the Kambara nu.•e ardente during the 1783
eruption of Asama volcano, Japan. This trench
is the largest terrestrial one known to me. In
the Kambara event blocks and fluidized ash and
gas dug a ditch from 1.1 to 2 km wide and at
least 40 m deep. Scarps 40 m high are still
visible in the channel.The interpositionof the
Agatsuma River altered the courseof the nu•e
The diameter ardente so that we cannot know what the un-
interrupted flow might have produced.Blocks
15 m in diameter were found as far as 25 km
down the fiver, and destructionfrom flooding
occurredas far as 90 km away. The Kambara
ditch is shown in Aramaki's map (Figure 4).
The ditch dug by the nu•e ardente is sinuous
and has a widening near the head. It is known
as the Amphitheater and is shown.in Figure 5,
which is Aramaki's photographof the Kambara
ditch. The area immediatelysurroundingthe
volcanois shown,showingthe courseof the ditch
near the source and Amphitheater. In the
photograph, the dark material is the andesitc
lava flow that came immediately after the
Kambara nu•e ardente and followed its chan-
nel, filling and almostobliteratingthe ditch in
places. Aramaki estimates the volume of the
Kambara nu•e ardente to be about 0.02 km8. I
estimatethat the volume,under terrestrial con-
ditions,requiredto produceSchrStcr's
 LUNAR SINUOUS RILLS 2427
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'x.x..•
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........................... Contour interval 50m
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.: :.':::::::: .: :;::: ?..:: :.'..;.•
::::::::::::':: '-;:F"'::;.,$;,::
::::::::::::.:::;:"
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::::::::
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o.

LEGEND

River
gravel
ß
.

::.':;::::::
On[-osni4•sni
Lava
Flow
(1783)
Area
ofNastingNu•e
Kambara
Ar•ente
erosion
• deposition(I 783)

Agatsu.a
•u•e
Arden
tell783)

oooooo

oooooooo

o
oooooooo Oiwa•e
Nu•eArdente
ooooooooo

ooooooooo
oooooooooo
o

ooooooooooo
• Naek•ke-yam•
ooooooooooo

oooooooooo•

oooooooo•ooo

o•oooooooooo
toke-Ma
Ho dacite
oooooooooooo
oooooooooooo
oooooooooooo
oooooooooooo

•ooooooo9ooo Augi fe-•ypersthene

•on,,onooooo• dac•te

ooooooooo
Lava flow
o
Hud flow
6ra ve I

Fig. 4. S. Aramaki's geologicmap (by permission)of the 1783 depositsof Asama volcano,
including the Kambara ditch outlined partly by a dotted line. The area below the horizontal
line in the middle of the map is the approximate area shown in Figure 5.
2428 WINIFRED SAWTELL CAMERON

d:ii¾
I'

..'...'
•.'.'..".-•
.',
ß
.?".....•

.......?.
..':;....:•:i:.-.:.::
...........

.....
:.

........

.::'.

..:
...;.•..-..:.:
.

Fig. 5. Aerial photograph of Asama volcano (by permission of S. Aramaki) showing the
upper part of the Kambara ditch and the subsequent Oni-Oshidashi lava flow (appearing
darker). The 'Amphitheater' is at the left center. The scarpsare indicated by black lines and
the numbers give the heights of the scarpsin meters. The diameter of the central crater is
0.5 km. North is at the top and east is at the right, correspondingto Figure 4.

would be about 100 km•, greater by a factor of comparableto the volume and depth of the
more than a thousand than the volume of the majority of the other lunar sinuous fills. Its
Kambara nu6e ardentc-but less than the vol- width, however, is much greater and is com-
umes of many terrestrial ash flow fields and parable to that of SchrSter'sValley. The ob-
valleys, which often exceed1000 km•. The vol- servablelength is about 15 km; the true length
ume and depth of the Kambara ditch are more is undetermined because of the interference of
 LUNAR SINUOUS RILLS 2429

the river and the unknown influence of the ero- The interpretation of the sinuousrills as val-
sive power in the river bed. leys erodedby nu,•esardentesimplies a number
The bottom of the Kambara ditch (where not of things about the selenologyof the moon. It
coveredby the lava flow) is strewn with large indicatesthat the moon has experienceda not
boulders,the largestbeing 160 m long and 5 m inconsiderable amount of volcanism,much of it
high, depositedabout 10 km from the volcano. acidic, which in turn implies a differentiated
The floor looks rough in the first part of the moon. Further support is found in the accumu-
flow. Fielder [1961] has observedthat when the lating evidence that tektites come from the
lunar rills cut through the mountains,the bot- moon.This evidencecomesfrom investigations
toms always appear to be very roughly sculp- by Chapman [1960], Chao et al. [1961], Adams
tured and strewn with innumerable rock blocks. and Hu#aker [1963], and O'Keefe [1963]. The
Those crossingmare material usually appear possibilityof acidic volcanismon the moon has
smooth. It is possiblethat the ridge in the beenstudiedby O'Keefe and Cameron [1962],
Cobra Head, observedby some,was produced Walter [1962], and Lowman [1963]. The ash
by a mechanismsimilar to that observedby flow is a phenomenon that may be expectedto
Perret in the action of many of the nu•es ar- occurif the moonis differentiatedthroughigne-
dentes of Mont Pel•e which formed medial ous processes.
moraines and in someinstanceseven left a ridge
instead of a furrow. Acknowledgments.I wish to expressmy grati-
tude to John A. O'Keefe for his helpful criticisms
The observed characteristics of the erosional
•nd encouragement and to Louis S. Walter and
productsof terrestrial nu•es ardentesare strik- Paul D. Lowman, Jr., for their valuable discus-
ingly similar to those of the lunar sinuousrills sions and criticisms on the geological aspects of
that fit Pickering's criteria. The proposition this paper. I also thank S. Aramaki for further in-
formation about the Asama events by private
submitted here is that SchrSter'sValley and the communication, and E. Shoemaker and his asso-
other sinuousrills owe their origin to the ero- ciates for valuable information and criticism in
sive agency of lunar nu•es ardentes. The mo- review of the paper.
mentum for the flow would be provided by the
I•EFEREN CES
elevated crater of origin. There may be some
observationalevidence in the literature to sup- Adams, E. W., and R. M. Huffaker, Aerodynamic
port this hypothesisof volcanism.Several lunar analysis of tektites and their parent bodies,
observers,notably Neison [1876], Elger [1895], SpaceResearch,Proc. Intern. Space Sci. Symp.
3rd, Washington, 1962, pp. 918-949, edited by
Pickering [1904], Klein [1955], Gruithuisen W. Priester, North-Holland Publishing Com-
[1955], Firso• [1960], and Thornton [1960], pany, Amsterdam, 1963.
have noted indistinctnessand changesof hue in Anonymous, Another lunar color phenomenon,
the vicinity of SchrSter'sValley. In one of his Sky and Telescope, 27(1), 3, 1964.
drawings Firsoff shows a white spot labeled Aramaki, S., The 1783 activity of Asama volcano,
1, Japan. J. Geol. Geography, Trans., 27, 216-
'star-like point.' The valley is very bright under 233, 1956.
a high sun. It is situated in the area known as Arthur, D. W. G., Some systematic visual lunar
Wood'sSpot [Wood, 1910], a regionthat photo- observations, Commun. Lunar and Planetary
graphsblack in the ultraviolet and is attributed Lab., Univ. Ariz., 1 (3), 24, 1962.
Baldwin, R. B., Face o] the Moon, p. 197, Univer-
by some to a deposit of sulfur--a product of sity of Chicago Press, 1949.
volcanic activity. Chao, E. C. T., I. Adler, E. J. Dwornik, and J.
When this paper was submitted for publica- Littler, Metallic spherules in tektites from Isa-
tion, I suggestedthat if the area of SchrSter's bella, the Philippine Islands, Astrogeol.Studies,
Valley were monitoredwith a spectrograph,like U.S. Geol. Surv. Semi-Ann. Rept., Feb. 26-
Aug. 24, 6-11, 1961.
Kozyrev's [1962] watch on Alphonsus,the re- Chapman, D. R., Recent re-entry research and
sults might be similarly rewarding. Recently the cosmic origin of tektites, Nature, 188(4748),
several observations,both spectroscopic[Kozy- 353-355, 1960.
rev, 1963] and visual [Greenacre,1963; Anony- Elger, T. G., The Moon, pp. 21 and 85, George
mous, 1964], of emanations in the Aristarchus Philip and Son, London, 1895.
Fielder, G., Structure o• the Moon's Surface,pp.
region, including the Cobra Head, have been 198, 208, 212, and 214, Pergamon Press, New
reported. York, 1961.
2430 WINIFRED SAWTELL
Firsoff, V. A., Strange World o• the Moon, pp.
71, 87, and 159-160, Basic Books, New York,
1960.
Goodacre,W., The Moon, pp. 29-32 and 268-270,
Pardy and Son, Bournemouth, England, 1931.
Greenacre, J. A., A recent observation of lunar
color phenomena, Sky and Telescope, 26(6),
316, 1963.
Gruithuisen, cited in The Moon, pp. 262-263, by
H. P. Wilkins and P. Moore, Faber and Faber,
London, 1955.
Guillemin, A., cited in Spurr, J. E., Lunar Catas-
trophic History, p. 82, Rumford Press, Concord,
1948.
Khabakov, A. V., The Moon, A Russian View, p.
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Klein, H. J., cited in The Moon, p. 263, by H. P.
Wilkins and P. Moore, Faber and Faber, Lon-
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Kozyrev, N. A., Physics and Astronomy o[ the
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Kozyrev, N. A., Volcanic phenomena on the moon,
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Kuiper, G. P., Vistas in Astronautics, vol. 2, p.
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Lobeck, A. K., Geomorphology,p. 193, McGraw-
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Lowman, P. D., Jr., The relation of tektites to
lunar igneous activity, Icarus, 2(1), 35, 1963.
Nasmyth, J. C. E., and J. Carpenter, The Moon,
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CAMERON
Neison, E., The Moon, pp. 73 and 275, Longmans,
Green and Co., London, 1876.
O'Keefe, J. A., Tektites, p. 177,University of Chi-
cago Press, 1963.
O'Keefe, J. A., and W. S. Cameron,Evidencefrom
the moon's surface features for the production
of lunar granites, Icarus, 1(3), 281-284, 1962.
Perret, F. A., The eruption of Mont Pel•e, 1929-
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Pickering, W. H., The Moon, pp. 42-43, Double-
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Ross,C. S., and R. L. Smith, Ash flow tuffs: Their
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U.S. Geol. Surv. Pro/ess. Paper 366, 1-81, 1961.
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Spurr, J. E., Lunar Catastrophic History, pp. 80-
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(Manuscript received November 29, 1963;
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