Geological Chronicle
Located on the eastern Mare Tranquillitatis, Cauchy is a circular impact crater dating to the Copernican period. Sloping inner walls lead to a small interior floor at the midpoint of the bowl-shaped formation. An oblique impact produced slight asymmetry in the rim, which measures 11.8 kilometers along the projectile direction and 12.3 kilometers across its perpendicular. Owing to its high albedo, the crater appears particularly prominent during the full Moon.
Cauchy lies between two prominent geological features: the 150-kilometer scarp Rupes Cauchy to the south and the 210-kilometer graben Rima Cauchy to the north, which roughly parallel each other. South and southwest of the fault rise the lunar domes Omega Cauchy and Tau Cauchy, each crowned by a summit depression likely formed by volcanic eruptions rather than impacts.
The crater honors French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy. Edmund Neison introduced the name into lunar nomenclature in 1878, and the International Astronomical Union officially adopted the designation in 1935.