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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms pp 1–6Cite as

Secondary Crater Field

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Definition

A belt or zone of secondary craters, most commonly around a primary crater (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Examples of secondary crater fields (McEwen and Bierhaus 2006). (a) A secondary crater chain with herringbone patterns from the lunar crater Copernicus (located < 350 km to the southeast). Superimposed (younger) secondary clusters may have come from Aristarchus, 580 km to the west (Masursky et al. 1978). Randomly distributed small craters in this image may be distant secondaries or small primaries. Scale bar 10 km. Apollo 17 AS17-P-3093 (NASA); (b) a cluster of secondary craters on Mars in Amazonis Planitia, which originated from Tooting, a young 29-km-diameter crater located < 100 km to the north. Scale bar 500 m. MOC S05-00491 (NASA/JPL/MSSS); (c) clusters of impact craters on Europa. The secondaries from Aristarchus and those on Europa are distant secondaries (>10 times the radius of the primary crater). Scale bar 5 km. Galileo mosaic E17STRSLP01 (NASA/JPL/ASU)

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References

  • Bierhaus EB, Chapman CR, Merline WJ (2005) Secondary craters on Europa and implications for cratered surfaces. Nature 437:1125–1127. doi:10.1038/nature04069

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  • McEwen AS, Bierhaus EB (2006) The importance of secondary cratering to age constraints on planetary surfaces. Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci 34:535–567. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.34.031405.125018

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  • Melosh HJ (1989) Impact cratering: a geologic process. Oxford University Press, New York

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  • Robbins SJ, Hynek BM (2011a) Secondary crater fields from 24 large primary craters on Mars: insights into nearby secondary crater production. J Geophys Res 116:E10003. doi:10.1029/2011JE003820

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  • Robbins SJ, Hynek BM (2011b) Distant secondary craters from Lyot Crater, Mars, and implications for surface ages of planetary bodies. Geophys Res Lett 38:L05201. doi:10.1029/2010GL046450

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Physics, 392 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309-0392, USA

    Brian M. Hynek

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  1. Brian M. Hynek
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Correspondence to Brian M. Hynek .

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Hynek, B.M. (2014). Secondary Crater Field. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_346-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_346-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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