Definition
Complex impact crater that has a central ring of peaks.
Category
A type of complex crater.
Description
Ringed peak-cluster basins are a subset of complex craters. Ringed peak-cluster basins, like peak-ring basins, have a single interior ring of peaks without a central peak. They overlap in rim-crest diameter with protobasins and also occur at diameters well below the transition to peak-ring basins (Baker et al. 2011b). They differ from peak-ring basins in that the diameter of their peak rings relative to their rim-crest diameter is smaller.
Classifying them as a separate type is supported by the observation that ringed peak-cluster basins diverge from the continuous trend of ring/rim-crest ratios shared by protobasins and peak-ring basins (Baker et al. 2011b).
Morphometry
The ring/rim-crest ratios are around 0.2 on Mercury as compared to ∼0.4 for protobasins and ∼0.5 for peak-ring basins. The diameters of ringed peak-cluster basins range between 73 and 133 km on Mercury...
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References
Baker DMH, Head JW, Schon SC, Ernst CM, Prockter LM, Murchie SL, Denevi BW, Solomon SC, Strom RG (2011a) The transition from complex crater to peak-ring basin on Mercury: new observations from MESSENGER flyby data and constraints on basin formation models. Planet Space Sci 59:15. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.05.010, 1932–1948
Baker DMH, Head JW, Fassett CI, Kadish SJ, Smith DE, Zuber MT, Neumann GA (2011b) The transition from complex crater to peak-ring basin on the Moon: new observations from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument. Icarus 214:377–393
Schon SC, Head JW, Baker DMH, Prockter LM, Ernst CM, Solomon SC (2011) Eminescu impact structure: insight into the transition from complex crater to peak-ring basin on Mercury. Planet Space Sci. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2011.02.003, in press
Wood CA, Tam W (1993) Morphologic classes of impact basins on Venus. Lunar Planet Sci Conf XXIV:1535–1536, Houston
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Hargitai, H. (2015). Ringed Peak-Cluster Basin. In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_428
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_428
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