Tag Archives: impact craters

HiRISE: Within an inverted impact crater

Posted on June 5, 2018 by rburnham

Within an inverted impact crater in Vastitas Borealis. This particular crater is characterized by a central deposit of positive relief with a subdued rim as a result of sublimation in the surrounding territory. A comprehensive study of inverted impact craters … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: A new impact crater

Posted on May 29, 2018 by rburnham

MRO keeps finding new impact sites on Mars. This one occurred within the dense secondary crater field of Corinto Crater, to the north-northeast. The new crater and its ejecta have distinctive color patterns. Once the colors have faded in a … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Twin craters in Meridiani Planum

Posted on May 18, 2018 by rburnham

This image shows two small impact craters located in Meridiani Planum. This is an example of the geologic principle of superposition: figuring out what happened first by looking at how features interact with each other. We can see that one … Continue reading →

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THEMIS: Youngish crater in Utopia Planitia

Posted on May 17, 2018 by rburnham

THEMIS Image of the Day, May 17, 2018. This VIS image shows an unnamed crater located in Utopia Planitia. This relatively young crater has a steep inner rim, with floor deposits that originate from the crater rim itself. As craters … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Pair of new impact craters

Posted on May 17, 2018 by rburnham

MRO has discovered over 700 new impact sites on Mars. Often, a bolide breaks apart in the atmosphere and makes a tight cluster of new craters. Here we see just two new craters, both with the same distinctive pattern of … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Formations in context (Or, what is it?)

Posted on April 5, 2018 by rburnham

Some HiRISE images show strange-looking formations. Sometimes it helps to look at Context Camera images to understand the circumstances of a scene—like this cutout from CTX 033783_1509—which here shows an impact crater with a central peak, and a collapse depression … Continue reading →

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THEMIS: Impact crater in Candor Chasma

Posted on January 15, 2018 by rburnham

THEMIS Image of the Day, January 15, 2017. This THEMIS image shows part of western Candor Chasma. Near the bottom of the image is an impact crater. Impact craters are relatively rare within all the canyons of Valles Marineris. The … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: A collapsed crater rim

Posted on November 27, 2017 by rburnham

The eastern rim of this small 3.5-kilometer crater appears to have collapsed into a much larger crater (about 14-kilometers wide). The larger crater has a large ice flow around its central peak, and is non-circular, with large blocks further suggesting … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: A small, well-preserved impact crater

Posted on November 16, 2017 by rburnham

A small, well-preserved impact crater in Hellas Planitia. Beautiful Mars series.

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HiRISE: Well-preserved 4-kilometer impact crater

Posted on November 10, 2017 by rburnham

Well-preserved 4-kilometer impact crater on the floor of Hellas Planitia. Why do we say “well-preserved?” Mainly due to the fact that the rim of the crater is still very visible. Beautiful Mars series.

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