Geological Chronicle
The Montes Taurus form a rugged highland massif spanning 172 kilometers across the northeastern quadrant of the Moon's near side, centered at 28.4° N, 40.3° E. The mountain massif lies east of Mare Serenitatis and northwest of Mare Crisium, forming a broad expanse of rolling hills and fractured plateau blocks. Its highest peaks rise to 3.0 kilometers above the surrounding lunar datum, with maximum local relief developed between the craters Kirchhoff and Newcomb.
The mountain block formed during the early impact history of the Moon, shaped by shockwaves and ejecta deposits from the Serenitatis and Crisium basin impacts during the Nectarian and Early Imbrian periods. Major impact craters mark the boundaries and interior of the range. The 40-kilometer crater Römer cuts into the southwestern highlands, exhibiting steep terraced walls and a central peak. Along the western border adjoining Mare Serenitatis lies Le Monnier, a 61-kilometer crater whose western rim collapsed and flooded with basaltic mare lava, creating a broad coastal bay.
Montes Taurus provided the setting for two lunar surface missions in the 1970s. In December 1972, Apollo 17 landed in the Taurus-Littrow valley along the southwestern edge of the massif. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt collected impact melt breccias and pyroclastic orange glass beads across three lunar surface excursions. In January 1973, the Soviet Luna 21 spacecraft touched down inside the flooded Le Monnier bay on the western flank, deploying the Lunokhod 2 rover to traverse 37 kilometers of mare and highland boundary terrain.
Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius first used the Latin designation Mons Taurus for a bright ray of Tycho in his 1647 lunar atlas Selenographia, while labeling this eastern highland region Taurica Chersonnesus after Crimea. Later cartographers transferred the name Montes Taurus to this mountain block after the Taurus Mountains in southern Turkey. The International Astronomical Union officially adopted the name in 1935.