The Serenitatis basin is on the near side of the Moon, east of Mare Imbrium and north of Mare Tranquillitatis (Figure 1.1). The basin is almost completely flooded by mare basalts (Figure 6.1) and displays a mascon gravity anomaly (Sjogren et al., 1974). The Serenitatis basin was recognized as multi-ring in the studies of Hartmann and Kuiper (1962), Baldwin (1963), Hartmann and Wood (1971) and during systematic geological mapping of the Moon (Wilhelms and McCauley, 1971). Because of the large amount of mare flooding and generally degraded appearance of the basin, Serenitatis was once considered to be one of the oldest basins on the Moon (Hartmann and Wood, 1971; Wilhelms and McCauley, 1971). This view has changed, primarily because of ages obtained for some Apollo 17 samples considered to represent impact melt of the Serenitatis basin (James et al., 1978; Wilhelms, 1987). I will describe the regional geology of the Serenitatis basin and some aspects of Apollo 17 site geology that relate to problems in the interpretation of its formation and subsequent evolution.

Regional geological setting and basin definition

The Serenitatis basin is close to the Imbrium basin and the effects of Imbrium on the morphologic evolution of Serenitatis have been significant. Most interpretations of basin geology rely on the well exposed highlands to the east of Mare Serenitatis (Figure 6.1). Thus, the morphological data available for interpreting the geology of the Serenitatis basin are limited compared with those for some of the other basins described in this book.