Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has released the highest-resolution geological maps of the Moon yet. Map Quadrangles of the Geologic Atlas of the Moon comprises 30 sector diagrams, which together form a visualisation of the whole Moon and accompany The Geologic Atlas of the Lunar Globe that is available separately.

Please note that this is not an atlas in the conventional sense of a large book, but instead consists of a very large fold-out map that comes in 30 individual fold-out pieces, stored in a large clamshell box (40 × 50 cm). These pieces form a mosaic that, when put together, make up a map of the moon.

Editor Liu Jianzhong has commented that "The world has witnessed significant progress in the field of lunar exploration and scientific research over the past decades, which have greatly improved our understanding of the moon. However, the lunar geologic maps published during the Apollo era have not been changed for about half a century, and are still being used for lunar geological research. With the improvements of lunar geologic studies, those old maps can no longer meet the needs of future scientific research and lunar exploration".