Oberon (moon) geological feature on Oberon: craters and chasmata ('canyons'—deep, elongated, steep-sided depressions which would probably be described as rift valleys or escarpments if on Earth). Oberon's surface is the most heavily cratered of all the Uranian moons, with a crater density approaching saturation—when the formation of new craters is balanced by destruction of old ones. This high number of craters indicates that Oberon has the most ancient surface among Uranus's moons. The crater diameters range up to 206 kilometers for the largest known crater, Hamlet. Many large craters are surrounded by bright impact ejecta (rays) consisting of relatively fresh ice. The
Oberon (moon) by the expansion of Oberon by about 0.5%, which occurred in two phases corresponding to the old and young canyons. The nature of the dark patches, which mainly occur on the leading hemisphere and inside craters, is not known. Some scientists hypothesized that they are of cryovolcanic origin (analogs of lunar maria), while others think that the impacts excavated dark material buried beneath the pure ice (crust). In the latter case Oberon should be at least partially differentiated, with the ice crust lying atop the non-differentiated interior. Oberon is thought to have formed from an accretion disc or subnebula: a