Viewing and Imaging the Solar System by Jane Clark

Author:Jane Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

If the central mountain made by the slumping grows too big to be stable, it falls back on itself and collapses, giving a central ring instead of a single peak (Fig. 6.39). The central mountain in Copernicus Crater untidily fits this pattern (Fig. 6.27).

Fig. 6.39Slumping to form a central ring in a complex crater. The central mountain is now too big to be stable; and it collapses into a ring (Image by the author)

Finally the slumping theory can explain multi-ring basins like Orientale (Fig. 6.31). Rings other than the central one form because the transient crater is big enough to slump outside its rim as well as inside it. This is illustrated in Fig. 6.40.

Fig. 6.40A complex crater with outer rings, also formed by slumping. Once again the central mountain is unstable, and it collapses into a ring. But now, the outer rim of the transient crater is unstable. It also slumps. The formation of the first outer ring shown is by a process not dissimilar to the way in which paint on a vertical wall forms drips if it is applied too thickly. Further outer rings can form by a similar process (Image by the author)

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