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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms pp 1–4Cite as

Hummocky Terrain

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Definition

An uneven or undulating surface texture whose roughness is between rough and smooth texture and which contains subdued and rolling landforms that are not as accentuated as those with isolated knobs Knobby Terrain) or with a rough texture. Undulating terrain is defined as having slopes of about 0.5–5°, while rolling terrain can be characterized by 2–9° slopes (Soil Survey Division Staff 1993, Table 3-1).

Related Terms

Rolling terrain; Undulating terrain

Examples

Hummocky terrain is produced by a variety of mechanisms that include the following.

Crater floors commonly have hummocky texture produced by slumped materials (Figs. 1, 2). Continuous crater ejecta also commonly have hummocky surfaces. The central peak of a crater may be a hummocky complex.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Hummocky terrain on the floor of Tsiolkovskiy near its northern wall. (a) LROC WAC, (b) LROC NAC M115475912RE at 18.9°S 128°E (NASA/GSFC/ASU)

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

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  1. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Hargitai, H. (2014). Hummocky Terrain. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_501-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_501-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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