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Crater Cluster (Atmospheric Breakup)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Group of separated (sometimes overlapping) impact craters that formed simultaneously, likely by the breakup of an impacting body in the atmosphere.

Synonyms

Crater field; Multiple crater; On Venus, if overlapping: irregular crater

Description

A given cluster’s size depends on atmospheric density, strength and density of the impactor, and speed and angle of atmospheric entry. Individual craters in Martian clusters have diameters of a few tens of meters down to the limit of detection, and the clusters can be spread over areas from 10s of meters to a few 100 m across (Popova et al. 2003; 2007; Daubar et al. 2013). On Venus, irregular craters are a tight cluster of 1–10 km-sized impact craters characterized by irregular and/or discontinuous rims and hummocky or multiple floors (Fig. 1).

Crater Cluster (Atmospheric Breakup), Fig. 1
figure 3186 figure 3186

Lilian crater, Venus, 13.5 km; 25.6°N, 336.0°E. Scale bar 10 km. P-38290 Magellan (NASA/JPL)

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arizona, Tucson, 85719, AZ, USA

    Ingrid Daubar

  2. Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Mikhail A. Kreslavsky

Authors
  1. Ingrid Daubar
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  2. Mikhail A. Kreslavsky
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ingrid Daubar .

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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Daubar, I., Kreslavsky, M.A. (2015). Crater Cluster (Atmospheric Breakup). In: Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á. (eds) Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3134-3_74

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