Geological Chronicle
Located on the Moon's far side southwest of Wiener and north of Mare Moscoviense, Kurchatov is an eroded lunar crater measuring 110.96 kilometers in diameter. The formation features a worn and pitted rim and inner wall, with a pair of small craters crossing its northern edge and another small crater resting along the northern inner wall.
Near the midpoint of the interior floor lies a small, elongated central ridge, surrounded by tiny craterlet pits and a bowl-shaped crater at the northwestern margin. Observations of the floor have identified the infrared spectrum of pure crystalline plagioclase.
Beginning south of the crater and running west-northwest toward Becquerel is Catena Kurchatov, a crater chain trending toward Mare Orientale that may consist of secondary craters from that impact. Before formal naming by the International Astronomical Union in 1961 in honor of Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov, the feature was designated Crater 126.