Skip to main content

Azimuthal impact directions from oblique impact crater morphology

Wallis, D., Burchell, Mark J., Cook, A.C., Solomon, Christopher J., McBride, Neil (2005) Azimuthal impact directions from oblique impact crater morphology. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 359 (3). pp. 1137-1149. ISSN 0035-8711. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08978.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:5083)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08978.x

Abstract

Planetary impact craters have a high degree of radial symmetry. This hampers efforts to identify the azimuthal impact direction for most craters - the radially symmetric component of an impact crater swamps any asymmetries that may be present. We demonstrate how the asymmetric component can be isolated and the direction of the asymmetries quantified using a two-dimensional eigenfunction expansion over a circular domain. The complex coefficients of expansion describe the magnitude and phase (angular alignment) of each term. From the analysis of hypervelocity impact craters formed in the laboratory, with impact angles ranging from 0° to 50° from the surface normal, we show that asymmetries which reveal the impact direction are still present at just 10° from the surface normal, and that the phase of one complex coefficient of expansion, c(11), indicates the impact direction. Analysis of the lunar crater Hadley shows bilateral symmetry in the radially asymmetric component, which may be due to oblique impact. The 31-km lunar ray crater Kepler has morphological features that indicate the azimuthal impact direction. Coefficient c(11) gives an azimuthal impact direction similar to that expected from the morphology, although post-impact gravitational collapse and slumping obscure the result to some degree. Ray craters may provide a means of testing the method for smaller 'simple' craters when data are available.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08978.x
Subjects: Q Science
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Mark Burchell
Date Deposited: 04 Sep 2008 16:10 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:43 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/5083 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Burchell, Mark J..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2680-8943
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Solomon, Christopher J..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5057-4614
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

McBride, Neil.

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.