Terraced Slopes and Basalt Samples at Apollo 12's Bench Crater

Feature Profile & Selenographic Data

Feature type

landing

Coordinates

3.02° S · 23.43° W

Diameter

0.18 km

IAU approval

1973/01/01 00:00:00

LAC quadrangle

LAC-76 · Montes Riphaeus

Geological Chronicle

Bench crater is a 180-meter-wide impact feature in Oceanus Procellarum, situated at 3.02° S, 23.43° W in the Montes Riphaeus quadrangle. On November 19, 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean set the Lunar Module Intrepid down northeast of the crater. The crew named the feature for internal terraces observed during planning, dividing it into a low bench on the west side and a high bench on the east side, a designation the International Astronomical Union formally adopted in 1973.

Observations recorded in the Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report noted both rounded and angular blocks littering the rim of Bench crater. To the astronauts, coarse-grained rock crystals were clearly visible, and many rocks on the rim were reported to be splattered with glass.

Two samples were collected near Bench crater. Sample 12035 is an olivine basalt, while sample 12053 is a pigeonite basalt.

Chronology & Exploration

1. 1969 Apollo 12 Exploration

   Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed the Lunar Module Intrepid northeast of Bench crater on November 19.

2. 1973 IAU Name Adoption

   The International Astronomical Union formally adopted the astronaut-given name Bench.

Scientific Sources & References

• IAU Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature — Registry coordinates and feature metadata
• Wikipedia: Bench (crater) — Localized source text

Name Origin

Astronaut-named feature, Apollo 12 site.