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Ring-Mold Crater

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Concentric crater, shaped like a truncated torus similar to the kitchen item (Kress and Head 2008, 2009).

Description

Ring-mold craters (RMCs) are rimless, concentric crater landforms with a circular outer moat and a variety of interior morphologies including central plateaus, pits, bowls, mounds, or multiple rings (Fig. 2), and they are named for their similarity to the cooking implement called ring mold (Kress and Head 2008). Ring-mold craters are best observed on images with a spatial resolution of 10 m/pixel or better (Pedersen and Head 2010).

Subtypes

Central plateau, central pit or bowl, multi-ring, and central mound (Fig. 2, Kress and Head 2008).

Morphometry

Ring-mold craters are small-scale craters with diameters ranging from ca. 50 m to <1 km with observed average diameter between 100 and 200 m. Ring-mold craters are typically larger than the associated bowl-shaped craters, which also are found in lineated valley fill, lobate debris aprons, and concentric crater...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nordic Volcanological Center, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Sturlugata 7, 101 Reykjavik, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Gro Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen

Authors
  1. Gro Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gro Birkefeldt Møller Pedersen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center/NPP, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

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Pedersen, G.B.M. (2015). Ring-Mold Crater. In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_318

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