Geological Chronicle
Fra Mauro is the worn remnant of a walled plain on the Moon, northeast of Mare Cognitum and southeast of Mare Insularum. Bonpland and Parry are joined along its southern rim, where both intrude into the formation with inward-bulging walls.
The south and southeastern rim is almost completely gone; a few ridges and promontories trace the original outline. The remainder is a set of low, irregular ridges, with the most prominent section in the southeast where it shares a wall with Parry. The outer rim’s maximum elevation is 0.7 km.
Basaltic lava covers the floor, which is nearly divided by clefts running from the north and south rims. Fra Mauro has no central peak, although the tiny crater Fra Mauro E lies at almost the midpoint of the formation.
The area north of Fra Mauro was the intended landing site for Apollo 13, but the mission was aborted after an oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft exploded. Apollo 14 later landed at Fra Mauro; its crew, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, sampled breccia deposited here by the Imbrium basin-forming impact.