PAPER 7 OF THE LEF SERIES
The Poles
Why the Poles Are Crowded
Abstract
The Moon's poles carry more craters than its equator. The count is made in the Robbins catalogue with the maria and South Pole–Aitken removed on both sides. On that clean count, the density of craters of 20 km and more within 30° caps about each pole is 1.20 ± 0.05 times that of the equatorial belt. The ratio rises with crater size, from 1.09 (20–30 km) to 1.53 (60–100 km). Material falling from above, of any origin, should land uniformly; two crowded poles at the ends of one axis require that something ordered the craters by the axis. We propose that the record froze on a young Moon that changed shape. Built at the tip of the Earth's pear and still attached, the body flattened as it approached the corotation line, while most large craters formed. Stretched between the Earth's gravity and the outward pull of corotation, it took a triaxial figure of about 1.8 : 1.4 : 1. After its centre of mass crossed the line it rounded and densified, and was released round with a rigid shell. A flattened body that rounds crowds its craters most at the poles, and its earliest craters most of all. Four tests follow. The clean pole-to-equator ratio rises with size. Craters kept their size on a stiff shell, so the polar median diameter is 1.06 times the equatorial. Young craters formed after rounding show no clear excess (0.92 and 1.12 on two samples). The two poles are equal (300 and 305 per million km²). Three tests pass and the fourth awaits a larger dated sample.
Keywords: Moon; lunar poles; crater density; Robbins catalogue; lunar shape; triaxial figure; lunar origin
How to cite
Duran, Z. (2026). The Poles: Why the Poles Are Crowded. Paper 7 of the LEF series. https://lef-model.com/paper07.html