Geological Chronicle
Positioned at high northern latitudes on the Moon's far side, van't Hoff spans a diameter of 107.3 kilometers northeast of the walled plain Birkhoff. The formation is situated between the crater Stebbins to the northwest and Dyson to the east, roughly two-thirds of the distance from the lunar equator to the pole.
Subsequent bombardment has heavily degraded the structure and distorted its original shape. Along the western half, the rim is ill-defined and features an unusually wide inner wall that may have become overlain by ejecta from other impacts to the west. Along the eastern face, the crater appears to have merged with one or two adjacent impacts, forming an outward double-bulge.
Along the eastern rim, a surface gouge forms a trough leading northeast for nearly a crater diameter across the terrain. Much of the interior floor of van't Hoff is relatively level, marked by small craterlets including a prominent cup-shaped depression in the southern half. The crater is named for Dutch chemist Jacobus Hendricus van 't Hoff.