Earth
These images show craters at different places on the Earth's surface.
The left image shows two
craters (forming the Clearwater Lakes) in Quebec, Canada (Click on image
for full size version (315K GIF) Courtesy of
NASA/LPI ). The right image shows the
Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona
(Click on image for full size version (307K GIF),
Courtesy of D. Roddy and LPI ).
Like other planets, the surface of the Earth has many craters.
Barringer Meteor Crater (right image), located in Arizona, is 1.2
km across, and is 49,000 years old. The twin impact craters seen
in the left image are Clearwater East and West craters, located in
Quebec, Canada. They were formed at the same time by two separate but
probably related meteorite impacts. Notice the erosion that has
occurred on these older craters in the Canadian Shield, in comparison with
the much younger Barringer crater. Clearwater Lake
West (left-most crater) has a ring of islands in the middle (diameter of
about 10
km) which are composed of impact melts. The central peak of the smaller
Clearwater Lake East is submerged.
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Mars
These images show examples of craters on the surface of Mars.
The image at the left shows the Sinus Sabaus and Deucalionis Regio
portion of Mars, and was obtained by Mariner 6 in 1969.
(Click on image for full size version (282K GIF),
Image courtesy of NASA). The image at the right shows an eroded
crater and dune fields near the south pole of Mars. (Click on image for
full size version (112K JPG),
Image courtesy of NASA).
There are many craters on the surface of Mars. The image at the
left (best seen at full size), taken by Mariner 6 in 1969, shows numerous
craters in the Sinus
Sabaus and Deucalionis Regio region of Mars. The crater at the lower
right of this image is Flaugergues and the double crater to the lower
left is Wislicenus. Notice that you can see craters within craters,
overlapping craters, and craters with raised central peaks. The image
at the right shows a crater and sand dunes near the south pole of Mars.
Craters in this region of Mars are being
erased by the action of sand on the Martian surface. There are even sand
dunes within the crater.
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