A Global Analysis of Crater Depth/Diameter Ratios on the Moon

Bo Wu; Yiran Wang; Stephanie C. Werner; Nils C. Prieur; Zhiyong Xiao

doi:10.1029/2022GL100886

A Global Analysis of Crater Depth/Diameter Ratios on the Moon

Bo Wu, Yiran Wang, Stephanie C. Werner, Nils C. Prieur, Zhiyong Xiao

Research output: Journal article publication › Journal article › Academic research › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

On the Moon, the old anorthositic highland rocks and younger basaltic mare units show distinguishable differences in appearance. The craters on the lunar highlands and maria also show variation in morphological characteristics. We analyzed the crater morphologies on a global scale, based on our new global catalog of lunar impact craters (≥1 km in diameter) with morphological information for each crater. We find that there is a global power-law relationship with an offset term between crater depth-to-diameter ratios and crater densities. Small craters (less than ∼4 km in diameter) on the lunar maria are found to be deeper than those on the highlands, indicating differences in target properties and crater degradations. Furthermore, the depths of the deepest simple craters identified on the lunar maria and the highlands provide references that the mare basalts and highland upper megaregolith have thicknesses of ∼2.3 and ∼3.3 km, respectively.

Original language	English
Article number	e2022GL100886
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	49
Issue number	20
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100886
Publication status	Published - 28 Oct 2022

Keywords

crater morphology
depth/diameter ratio
impact craters
Moon

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
General Earth and Planetary Sciences

More information

10.1029/2022GL100886

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title = "A Global Analysis of Crater Depth/Diameter Ratios on the Moon",

abstract = "On the Moon, the old anorthositic highland rocks and younger basaltic mare units show distinguishable differences in appearance. The craters on the lunar highlands and maria also show variation in morphological characteristics. We analyzed the crater morphologies on a global scale, based on our new global catalog of lunar impact craters (≥1 km in diameter) with morphological information for each crater. We find that there is a global power-law relationship with an offset term between crater depth-to-diameter ratios and crater densities. Small craters (less than ∼4 km in diameter) on the lunar maria are found to be deeper than those on the highlands, indicating differences in target properties and crater degradations. Furthermore, the depths of the deepest simple craters identified on the lunar maria and the highlands provide references that the mare basalts and highland upper megaregolith have thicknesses of ∼2.3 and ∼3.3 km, respectively.",

keywords = "crater morphology, depth/diameter ratio, impact craters, Moon",

author = "Bo Wu and Yiran Wang and Werner, {Stephanie C.} and Prieur, {Nils C.} and Zhiyong Xiao",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the Research grants Council of Hong Kong (RIF Project No: R5043‐19, Project No: PolyU 15210520) and a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No: 41671426). The authors thank the individuals who helped make the archive of the data sets publicly available. The authors also thank Bob Craddock and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments that helped improve this study. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.",

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AU - Wu, Bo

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AU - Prieur, Nils C.

AU - Xiao, Zhiyong

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the Research grants Council of Hong Kong (RIF Project No: R5043‐19, Project No: PolyU 15210520) and a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No: 41671426). The authors thank the individuals who helped make the archive of the data sets publicly available. The authors also thank Bob Craddock and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments that helped improve this study. Publisher Copyright: © 2022. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

PY - 2022/10/28

Y1 - 2022/10/28

N2 - On the Moon, the old anorthositic highland rocks and younger basaltic mare units show distinguishable differences in appearance. The craters on the lunar highlands and maria also show variation in morphological characteristics. We analyzed the crater morphologies on a global scale, based on our new global catalog of lunar impact craters (≥1 km in diameter) with morphological information for each crater. We find that there is a global power-law relationship with an offset term between crater depth-to-diameter ratios and crater densities. Small craters (less than ∼4 km in diameter) on the lunar maria are found to be deeper than those on the highlands, indicating differences in target properties and crater degradations. Furthermore, the depths of the deepest simple craters identified on the lunar maria and the highlands provide references that the mare basalts and highland upper megaregolith have thicknesses of ∼2.3 and ∼3.3 km, respectively.

AB - On the Moon, the old anorthositic highland rocks and younger basaltic mare units show distinguishable differences in appearance. The craters on the lunar highlands and maria also show variation in morphological characteristics. We analyzed the crater morphologies on a global scale, based on our new global catalog of lunar impact craters (≥1 km in diameter) with morphological information for each crater. We find that there is a global power-law relationship with an offset term between crater depth-to-diameter ratios and crater densities. Small craters (less than ∼4 km in diameter) on the lunar maria are found to be deeper than those on the highlands, indicating differences in target properties and crater degradations. Furthermore, the depths of the deepest simple craters identified on the lunar maria and the highlands provide references that the mare basalts and highland upper megaregolith have thicknesses of ∼2.3 and ∼3.3 km, respectively.

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DO - 10.1029/2022GL100886

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A Global Analysis of Crater Depth/Diameter Ratios on the Moon

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Keywords

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