Geological Chronicle
Capuanus is a lunar impact crater measuring 59.69 kilometers across along the southern edge of the Palus Epidemiarum. Basaltic lava has resurfaced its interior floor, connecting to the surrounding lunar mare through a narrow, crater-formed gap in the northern rim. The outer rim is eroded and indented by lesser crater impacts, showing notches in the north, west, and southern sectors, while a pair of craters overlays the southeastern rim.
Dotting the floor of the crater are eight domes believed to have formed through volcanic activity, and observers have reported three instances of transient lunar phenomena here. The rim reaches its maximum altitude along the western face, where it merges with ridges along the edge of the mare. To the northeast, the rim dips down very close to the surface, barely forming a curving ridge in the plain.
To the north lies the western extreme of the wide rille Rima Hesiodus, while the intersecting system of Rimae Ramsden spreads toward the west-northwest near the crater Ramsden. The feature honors fifteenth-century Italian astronomer Francesco Capuano di Manfredonia. Giovanni B. Riccioli incorporated his name into lunar nomenclature in 1651, but assigned it to the formation now known as Ramsden, while this crater was designated Cichus; the International Astronomical Union officially adopted its modern designation in 1935.