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Simple Crater

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

A simple crater is a bowl-shaped depression produced by an impact.

Description

Simple craters are polygonal to circular bowl-shaped depressions with smooth to ragged raised rims surrounded by a blanket of continuous ejecta. Simple craters range in size from centimeters to tens of kilometers, where the maximum size is inversely related to planetary mass. Simple craters are characterized by a uniformly concave-upward shape with an approximately conical to parabolic interior profile (Figs. 1 and 2). Simple craters can exhibit a bench-like step in the walls or a central mound if formed in a surface with layers of varying strength (nested crater, concentric crater (Moon)). Otherwise, they exhibit few other internal topographic features with the exception of slump deposits, debris chutes, gullies, or sporadic boulder trails. The crater may have a central flat floor of crater-fill deposit that originates from mass wasting and eolian or fluvial infilling or ponding of impact melt (t...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, 239-20, 94035, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Whitin Observatory, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA

    Wesley Andres Watters

Authors
  1. Henrik Hargitai
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  2. Wesley Andres Watters
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

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Hargitai, H., Watters, W.A. (2015). Simple Crater. In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_348

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