L’origine dei crateri lunari: letture e proposte didattiche

This work reports the Italian translation of some parts of the English version of the paper that Alfred Wegener – best known for the continental drift theory – published in 1921 on “The origin of lunar craters”. One of the Moon craters is now named after Wegener. The various theories on the origin of the craters according to the scientific literature at the time are reviewed: the tidal, the bubble, the volcanic and the impact hypotheses. The impact hypothesis has proved its worth also through experiments carried out with cement dust by Wegener himself in the winter of 1918. In the last section the reader will find some easy experiments for the students.