Definition
Complex impact crater that has a central ring of peaks.
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 (Baker et al. 2011b...
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
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hargitai, H. (2014). Ringed Peak-Cluster Basin. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_428-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_428-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences