[meteorite-list] Re: Impact Structures - Simple vs Complex?

[Charles O'Dale]

Jeff:

A general "rule of thumb" RE: crater characteristics:

TRANSITION BETWEEN SIMPLE - COMPLEX

Moon - 15 km
Mercury and Mars - 7 km
Earth - 3 to 5 km

.... but the correct answer is "it depends".

I tried to answer this question at:

http://www.ottawa.rasc.ca/astronomy/earth_craters/intro.html

Charles O'Dale
Meeting Chair
Ottawa RASC
http://www.ottawa.rasc.ca/astronomy/earth_craters/index.html


> Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:01:29 +1100
> From: "Jeff Kuyken" <info at meteorites.com.au>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Impact Structures - Simple vs Complex?
> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Message-ID: <001901c64828$34025e60$6501a8c0 at mandin4f89ypwu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
>
> Here's a question for those of you more familiar with impact structures on
> Earth. I believe I saw somewhere that craters fall into 2 main categories?
> simple and Complex with the later having a central uplift, concentric 
> rings,
> etc among other things.
>
> My question is: How small can a complex crater be? Is there a definitive
> size restraint or does it completely depend on a multitude of variables 
> such
> as the make-up of the impacting body, velocity, impact angle, target rock,
> etc?
>
> Any help is appreciated,
>
> Jeff Kuyken
> Meteorites Australia
> www.meteorites.com.au
>
>