Definition
Craters surrounded by a plateau (pedestal) that is surrounded by an outward-facing scarp.
Description
Impact structures whose crater bowl is located near the center of the often-circular pedestal (mesa or plateau) that is surrounded by a continuous outward-facing scarp. The scarp is located generally several crater diameters from the rim crest.
Both the crater floor and its ejecta blanket are elevated above the surrounding terrain for midatitude pedestal craters.
Martian pedestal craters are small; their diameter ranges from ~0.5 to ~5 km. Pedestals are ~20–100 m in height (Kadish and Head 2010). Pedestal height was found to have no significant correlation with pedestal crater diameter, P/C ratio, or pedestal circularity suggesting that the final height of a pedestal is determined by the thickness of the ice-rich target deposit and not the impact process (Kadish et al. 2010).
Pedestal morphology occurs with both single and multiple ejecta layers but never with double-layer...
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References
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Hargitai, H. (2014). Pedestal Crater (Mars). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_257-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_257-1
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