crater

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False-colour picture of Memnonia Fossae, near Tharsis.The craters in the upper and lower halves of the image are separated by a radial valley produced by volcanic and tectonic activity. The colour variations represent the effects of wind, water, and lava flows.

Martian surface near the equator. The right half of the picture is dominated by craters; the lighter areas on the left are channels that were probably caused by water runoff from the west (left). This false-colour composite picture is based on high-resolution black-and-white and low-resolution colour images taken by the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft.

crater

geology

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Meteor Crater, Arizona

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Category: Geography & Travel

Related Topics:: meteorite crater; caldera; impact structure; maar; lunar crater

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Rabe Crater
Part of the floor of Rabe Crater, a large impact crater in Mars's southern highlands, photographed October 24, 2007.

crater, circular depression in the surface of a planetary body. Most craters are the result of impacts of meteorites or of volcanic explosions. Meteorite craters are more common on the Moon and Mars and on other planets and natural satellites than on Earth, because most meteorites either burn up in Earth’s atmosphere before reaching its surface or erosion soon obscures the impact site. Craters made by exploding volcanoes (e.g., Crater Lake, Oregon) are more common on Earth than on the Moon, Mars, or Jupiter’s moon Io, where they have also been identified.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Alison Eldridge.