Geological Chronicle
Klaproth is an old lunar impact crater in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon's near side, measuring 121.37 kilometers in diameter. Due to its location, the crater appears significantly foreshortened when viewed from Earth. Its southern rim is overlain by the similar-sized crater Casatus, and Blancanus lies to the north-northeast.
A long history of bombardment has deeply eroded, incised, and reshaped Klaproth's outer rim. While the rim to the north and east remains relatively circular, the western face has been overlain by satellite craters Klaproth G and Klaproth H and other impacts, and Casatus significantly intrudes into the southern floor. Resurfacing by past material, possibly fluidized ejecta or lava, left a level and nearly featureless surface marked only by a multitude of tiny craterlets, with no surviving central peak.
The crater is named for Martin Heinrich Klaproth, the German chemist and mineralogist who discovered uranium.