earth science

Schroter's Valley

Schroter's Valley is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Schroter's Valley rather than just read about it. In short: Schroter's Valley, frequently known by the Latinized name Vallis Schröteri, is a sinuous valley or rille on the surface of the near side of the Moon. It is located on a rise of continental ground, sometimes called the Aristarchus plateau, that is surrounded by the Oceanus Procellarum to the south and west and the Mare Imbrium to the northwest.

Key takeaways

Schroter's Valley belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Schroter's Valley to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Schroter's Valley from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Schroter's Valley, frequently known by the Latinized name Vallis Schröteri, is a sinuous valley or rille on the surface of the near side of the Moon. It is located on a rise of continental ground, sometimes called the Aristarchus plateau, that is surrounded by the Oceanus Procellarum to the south and west and the Mare Imbrium to the northwest. At the southern edge of this rise are the craters Aristarchus and Herodotus. This is the largest sinuous rille on the Moon. It begins at a 6 km diameter crater located 25 km to the north of Herodotus. (The start of the rille has been termed the "Cobra's Head" by some observers, due to its resemblance to a snake.) From the crater it follows a meandering path, first to the north, then setting a course toward the northwest, before finally bending back to the south until it reaches a 1 km high precipice at the edge of the Oceanus Procellarum. The rille has a maximum width of about 10 km, then gradually narrows to less than a kilometer near its terminus. The origins of this rille are believed to be volcanic. The interior floor has been resurfaced and is very level. However, there is a slender rille located on the floor, which can be photographed from Earth with a good telescope and good seeing. The rille has been the subject of numerous transient lunar phenomena observations. The selenographic coordinates of this valley are 26.2°N 50.8°W / 26.2; -50.8, and it has a maximum diameter of 168 km. It is named for Johannes H. Schröter. It was a potential landing site for the canceled Apollo 18 mission. In April 2020, Intuitive Machines announced that Vallis Schröteri would be the target site of its first lunar landing attempt in October 2021. The company was awarded a $77 million Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract in May 2019 to land science payloads on the Moon for NASA. The robotic Nova C lander will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. By April 2021, however, the landing site had been changed to a location between Mare Serenitatis and Mare Crisium instead.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Schroter's Valley

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Schroter's Valley claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Schroter's Valley before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Schroter's Valley ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Schroter's Valley

In research: Schroter's Valley appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Schroter's Valley in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Schroter's Valley is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics LQ10 quadrangle, Valleys on the Moon, Volcanism on the Moon, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Schroter's Valley outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Schroter's Valley in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Schroter's Valley means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Schroter's Valley out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Schroter's Valley in simple terms?

Why does Schroter's Valley matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Schroter's Valley?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Schroter's Valley.