Geological Chronicle
Positioned just beyond the Moon's northwestern limb on the far side, Lorentz spans 378.42 kilometers in diameter. The structure is classified as a peak ring basin, featuring an interior topographic ring or a discontinuous ring of peaks with no central peak. Favorable lunar librations periodically bring the region into sight from Earth.
Lorentz dates to the Pre-Nectarian period of the lunar geologic timescale. In scale, the basin approaches the size of Mare Nectaris on the lunar near side, though its basin floor was never submerged by lava. An arc along its western rim features relatively level floor sections marked by small craterlets, while the remainder of the interior is rough, irregular, and scarred by numerous impacts.
Several prominent craters lie within and along the basin perimeter. Near the center, a crater pairing consists of Nernst, positioned just north of Lorentz's midpoint, and Röntgen, attached to Nernst's southeastern rim. Across the outer boundaries, Laue lies across the southern rim, Avicenna crosses the northwestern rim, and Aston sits near the indeterminate eastern rim.