Geological Chronicle
Located on the far side of the Moon, Maxwell spans 109.24 kilometers across the southwestern part of the larger crater Richardson. The southern section of Maxwell is overlain in turn by the partly flooded crater Lomonosov, while the larger crater Joliot lies less than one crater diameter to the southwest.
The surviving outer rim of Maxwell is generally uneven and ill-defined where it overlies Richardson, appearing organized only along its worn western edge. Across the relatively level interior floor, patches of low-albedo material point to basaltic lava or impact melt, though material from the ray system of Giordano Bruno to the north-northeast has lightened the surface. The outer rampart of Lomonosov overlies the southern floor.
Prior to its formal naming in 1961 by the International Astronomical Union, the crater was known as Crater 112. It was named for the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell.