Rima Ariadaeus is a linear rille on the lunar surface, situated at coordinates 6°24′N 14°00′E / 6.4°N 14.0°E. Measuring approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) in width and spanning a length of 300 km (186.4 mi), it stretches between Mare Tranquillitatis and Mare Vaporum.[1][2]
Some scientists think that the linear rilles might have formed after large impact events, while others believe that the rilles were formed as a surface manifestation of deep-seated dike systems when the Moon was still volcanically active. Rima Ariadaeus is thought to have been formed when a section of the Moon's crust sank down between two parallel fault lines (making it a graben or fault trough).[3] Rima Ariadaeus shows no trace of associated volcanism and is thus considered to be an end member of the sequence where only pure faulting is involved i.e. a linear rille.[4]
The ridges crossing the rille trough of Rima Ariadaeus and the surrounding plains units have been offset by the trough, proving that the ridges are older than the faults. Some craters are cut off by the faults and are, therefore, older. Other craters lie on the wall of the trough and are younger than the faulting. The faulting must be relatively young because so few craters appear to be younger than the faults, and because the edges of the trough appear to be crisp and little affected by slumping and other mass wasting.[4]
An Apollo mission photograph of this 300-kilometer-long rille has been used as evidence in a claim circulating in the Muslim online community, asserting that the Islamic account of the splitting of the moon is real. Astronomer Paul Groot of Radboud University, however, refutes this claim, pointing out that the rille does not encircle the entire surface of the moon and arguing that its formation is related to the impact that formed the Tycho crater, which is located to the lower right of the feature in the orientation of the photo. NASA notes that the rille is similar to geological faults on Earth and states, "No current scientific evidence reports that the Moon was split into two (or more) parts and then reassembled at any point in the past."[5][6]