Geological Chronicle
Carnot occupies the Moon’s northern far side, where it intrudes into Birkhoff’s southern rim. Birkhoff is a huge walled plain; Paraskevopoulos lies west-southwest of Carnot.
Carnot formed during the Nectarian period. Its outer rim is somewhat hexagonal, especially in the southern half. The northern rim has an irregular inner wall; the southern face is terraced and has a sharper outer edge. Some slumping along the southeastern rim produces outward bulges. Three small, cup-shaped craters partly cover the western inner wall.
Inside the rim, the floor is flat and level at least in comparison with the rugged terrain outside it. Mare material may be present, particularly in the northeast. A central peak lies just southeast of the crater midpoint, where an infrared spectrum of pure crystalline plagioclase has been identified. Several small craters and many tiny ones mark the floor; the most prominent is a small, shallow crater near the southern inner wall.
Carnot is named for French physicist Nicolas L. S. Carnot, who lived from 1796 to 1832. The IAU formally adopted the crater’s designation in 1970.