Lunar near-side tectonic patterns from Orbiter 4 photographs.

For this study, 14,000 plots were made of linear features on Lunar Orbiter 4 photographs, including near-side mare ridges, segments of straight rills, highland ridges, and walls of polygonal craters. N-S lineations are dominant, followed by NE, NW, NNE, and NNW trends. E-W lineations, prominent among intersecting craters, are conspicuously absent. Mare ridges supposedly concentric to the circumference of the Sea of Moisture and lineaments supposedly radial to the Eastern Sea and the Sea of Rains lack E-W components. Fractures resulting from N-S compression and E-W tension could explain observed trends.