Morphodynamics of planetary impact craters

Abstract

In this chapter, the shape and mechanics of impact craters are discussed. In particular, planetary-scale craters will be featured. Because crater sizes are distributed over a very wide range (over several orders of magnitude), scaling method and dimensional analysis such as ∏-groups method introduced in Sect. 2.5.2 have been applied to understand the physical mechanisms of the cratering process. The crater erasure process by impact-induced seismicity will also be discussed briefly. Fundamentals of the morphological classification of various craters and the scaling-based analysis method are introduced in the following text.