Abstract
Diameters of craters in the lunar walled plain Ptolemaeus and in vicinal equal-area terrae (highland surfaces) were measured by means of some of the best lunar photographs available at this time. Statistical analyses of the data lead to the conclusion that the ghosts, which are partially submerged craters, and the post-Ptolemaean craters came from distinctly different populations. A range of relative rates of formation of the two types of craters was deduced from areal densities and assumed times of terminal flooding, which represents a logical fiducial point. Since Ptolemaeus is presumably an ancient feature, the rate of formation of the early ghosts exceeded the subsequent rate at which the post-Ptolemaean craters were produced by one or two orders of magnitude. On the basis of the relative surface densities, age and frequency distributions of the total Ptolemaean and adjacent terrae craters, it is tentatively inferred that these craters may have had a similar history.
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