Geological Chronicle
Belʹkovich is a large lunar impact crater of the form termed a walled plain, dating to the Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale. It lies along the northeastern limb of the Moon, making its visibility subject to libration effects and viewing from Earth difficult because it is seen from the side. Subsequent impacts have heavily eroded the formation, leaving it reshaped and worn, with softened, rounded features and an outer rim that forms a roughly circular range of mountains and hills.
Belʹkovich intrudes into the northeast portion of Mare Humboldtianum, where the mare surface outside the rim is hilly and irregular across much of its northern half. Several intersecting craters cut into the structure: the younger crater Hayn intrudes into the northwest rim, satellite crater Belʹkovich K crosses the northeast rim, and the lava-flooded crater Belʹkovich A cuts across the southern rim, overlain on its western rim by small, bowl-shaped Belʹkovich B. Inside, small hillocks mark the northern and northeastern floor, craterlets mark the southeast quadrant, and only the western floor is relatively flat, crossed by a slender rille that extends east-southeast before bending southeast.
Spectra of the central peak fit a gabbroic anorthosite mineralogy that originated from a depth of 21.4 to 36.6 km, while the infrared spectrum of pure crystalline plagioclase occurs on the western rim. To the southeast lies Compton crater, and east of Belʹkovich sits the Compton-Belkovich volcanic complex, an elevated highland feature spanning roughly 25 km × 35 km with high surface reflectance, volcanic domes and depressions, isolated high thorium and silica, and an unusual heat anomaly discovered in 2023.