Geological Chronicle
Located near the south limb of the Moon, south-southwest of the crater Moretus, Newton spans 83.85 kilometers in diameter. Because of its location near the lunar limb, the formation appears highly oblong due to foreshortening. In 1917, British astronomer T. W. Webb described Newton as an irregular crater and the deepest known, and it remains considered the deepest crater on the near side of the Moon.
The interior of Newton presents a sharp contrast between its southern and northern halves. The southern floor has been covered, possibly by lava flows or ejecta, leaving a relatively flat surface marked only by tiny craters and a slight wrinkle ridge down the middle. To the north, the terrain is rugged and irregular, where the satellite crater Newton D overlies the north-northeastern rim and extends across nearly half the crater diameter.
The crater wall in the south is relatively low and narrow, where the smaller crater Newton G is partly overlain and flooded by lava. This adjacent formation forms a step up from the floor of Newton, accompanied by a tiny rille in the south floor where a channel appears to have flowed down the side from Newton G. Secondary craters in Newton and nearby Newton A were formed by ejecta from a ray crossing Clavius from Tycho crater.