Definition
Complex crater on low-gravity bodies characterized by broad central structures and bowl-shaped cavity.
Description and Regional Variations
These craters exhibit both the bowl-shaped cavity of simple craters and the central structure and slump features of complex craters, making them transitional between simple and complex craters. These craters mostly occur only on large asteroids (Vesta) or smaller icy satellites (e.g., Hyperion) where gravity is weak but internal strength is large enough to keep the body’s material together without disintegrating.
The nearly bowl-shaped cavity is significantly shallower than the similar-sized simple craters on other bodies. The elevated conical central structure may be well developed in larger basins, for example, Rheasilvia (Schenk et al. 2013), but less developed in smaller craters, which show irregular, broad intracrater mounds that may be putative central peaks (Schenk et al. 2013) or slump features (Transitional Crater).
Subtypes
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References
O’Brien DP, Marchi P, Schenk P, Mittlefehldt DW, Jaumann R et al (2012) The impact history of Vesta: new views from the dawn mission. Early solar system impact bombardment II #4031
Schenk P, O’Brien DP, Marchi S, Gaskell R, Preusker F, Roatsch T, Jaumann R, Buczkowski D, McCord T, McSween HY, Williams D, Yingst A, Raymond C, Russell C (2012) The geologically recent giant impact basins at Vesta’s south pole. Supplementary material. Science 336:694. doi:10.1126/science.1223272
Schenk P, Vincent J-B, Marchi S, O’Brien DP, Gaskell R, Preusker F, Raymond CA, Russell CT (2013) Impact crater morphologies on Vesta in solar system context. 44th LPSC #2039
Thomas PC (2010) Sizes, shapes, and derived properties of the saturnian satellites after the Cassini nominal mission. Icarus 208(1):395–401
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Hargitai, H. (2014). Complex Crater (Low Gravity). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_612-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_612-1
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