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Pit

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

A hole, shaft, or cavity in the ground, typically with circular or elliptical plan view shape. “A local minimum of elevation, as at the lowest point of a closed depression” (Jackson 1997).

Synonyms

Collapse depression; Collapse pit

Description

Pits tend to be conical, cylindrical, or bowl-shaped, rimless depressions.

Subtypes (Planetary)

  1. (1)

    Pit craters: The term “pit crater” has been used for pits of various origin (except impacts), but it is proposed to be limited to pits produced by volcanic processes (Halliday et al. 2011). A dilational normal faulting origin of pit craters is also well documented (Ferrill et al. 2004, 2011; Wyrick et al. 2004). Pit craters may form pit crater chains.

  2. (2)

    Pits of other (non-volcanic, non-faulting) origin (e.g., loss of volatile) include:

    1. (2.1)

      Impact melt pit: Collapse depressions where collapse occurred within impact melt units. Impact melt pits form when melt deposit is thick, and its interior stays molten for a period of time and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth, Material, and Planetary Sciences, Geosciences and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, 6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX, 78240, USA

    David A. Ferrill

Authors
  1. David A. Ferrill
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Correspondence to David A. Ferrill .

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Ferrill, D.A. (2014). Pit. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_267-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_267-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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