The Daily Croissant - Filed under 'Craters'

Degas : a Crater Painted Blue
- 5 Mar 2012
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- Craters March 05 2012 Mercury
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MESSENGER wide-angle camera image of Degas crater

"This image, acquired by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft on December 12, 2011, reveals the blue coloration of the 32-mile (52-km) -wide Degas crater located in Mercury’s Sobkou Planitia region.

Degas’ bright central peaks are highly reflective in this view, and may be surrounded by hollows — patches of sunken, eroded ground first identified by MESSENGER last year.

Such blue-colored material within craters has been increasingly identified as more of Mercury’s surface is revealed in detail by MESSENGER images. It is likely due to an as-yet-unspecified type of dark subsurface rock, revealed by impact events."

via universetoday.com
Cinder Cone in Northern Arizona
- 22 Jan 2012
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- Arizona Cinder Cones Craters January 22 2012 Volcanoes
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"I photographed this beautiful cinder cone while touring the area north of Flagstaff, Arizona, in March and April 2010. It forms a striking pose looking over the surrounding grassy plains. The area that includes this cone and the more famous Sunset Crater is known as the San Francisco Volcanic Field. Eruptions in this field between the years 1040 and 1100 would have profoundly affected the way of life of the local inhabitants who witnessed these powerful geologic processes."

via epod.usra.edu
Standing on the Rim of Aristarchus Crater
- 4 Jan 2012
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- Craters January 04 2012 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Moon
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A 'straight down' view of Aristarchus, Aristarchus crater.. Small white arrows indicate approximate corners of the NAC panorama. Vertical line on right shows LRO orbit ground track.

West wall of Aristarchus crater seen obliquely by the LROC NACs from an altitude of only 26 km. Scene is about 12 km wide at the base.

Click here to zoom and pan the full-resolution panoramic view of Aristarchus Crater.

"Have you ever you looked up at the bright, cavernous Aristarchus Crater on the Moon through a telescope or binoculars and wondered what it would be like to stand on the rim and peer inside? Spectacular new views from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is almost as good as being there, and a new video lets you “rappel” down and take a closer look at the west side of the crater walls."

via universetoday.com
Dallol - The World's Weirdest Volcanic Crater
- 29 Dec 2011
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- 28December11 Craters Ethiopia Volcanoes
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"Dallol is a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. It has been formed by the intrusion of basaltic magma in Miocene salt deposits and subsequent hydrothermal activity. Phreatic eruptions take place here, the last known one in 1926, numerous other eruption craters dot the salt flats nearby. These craters are the lowest known subaerial volcanic vents in the world, at over 45 m (150 ft) below sea level." Wikipedia

see much more via kuriositas.com
Colorful Planet Mars - Cratered Cones in Utopia Planitia
- 28 Oct 2011
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- 27October11 Craters Mars
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"Cratered Cones in Utopia Planitia Cone-shaped hills with summit depressions or craters similar to the two examples in this image are common in the northern mid-latitudes of Mars. Their occurrence in plains that are likely to be volcanic in origin, and their shape that is similar to small explosive cones on Earth, are evidence for a volcanic genesis of these cones. But the details of the surrounding area and the cones, in this case, demonstrate they are too battered by small impact craters and erosion in general to allow a definitive interpretation. They could also be simply erosional outliers of an older terrain. Or, they may be non-volcanic features similar to certain ice-related hills on Earth."
Written by: L. Crumpler

via triggerpit.com
Colorful Planet Mars : Bedrock Exposed in Walls and Central Peak of Crater
- 14 Sep 2011
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- 13September11 Astronomy Craters Mars
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via triggerpit.com
Opportunity investigates Tisdale 2 : Clues to Ancient Water Flow on Mars
- 10 Sep 2011
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- 09September11 Craters Discoveries Mars Water
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Bright veins cutting across outcrop in a section of Endeavour crater's rim called "Botany Bay" are visible in the foreground and middle distance of this view assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on Opportunity during Sol 2,681on Mars (Aug. 9, 2011).

Opportunity Traverse Map: 2004 to 2011. The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point approaching the rim of Endeavour crater. The map traces the route through the 2,670th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (July 29, 2011).

This image taken from orbit shows the path of the path driven by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in the weeks around the rover's arrival at the rim of Endeavour crater. The sol number (number of Martian days since the rover landed on Mars) are indicated along the route. Sol 2674 corresponds to Aug. 2, 2011; Sol 2688 corresponds to Aug. 16, 2011

Bright veins cutting across outcrop in a section of Endeavour crater's rim called "Botany Bay" are visible in the foreground and middle distance of this view assembled from images taken by the navigation camera on Opportunity during Sol 2,681on Mars (Aug. 9, 2011)

This rock, informally named "Tisdale 2," was the first rock the NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity examined in detail on the rim of Endeavour crater. It has textures and composition unlike any rock the rover examined during its first 90 months on Mars. Its characteristics are consistent with the rock being a breccia -- a type of rock fusing together broken fragments of older rocks.

"Opportunity has begun a whole new mission at Endeavour Crater promising a boatload of new science discoveries.

Scientists directing NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover gushed with excitement as they announced that the aging robot has discovered a rock with a composition unlike anything previously explored on the Red Planet’s surface – since she landed on the exotic Martian plains 7.5 years ago – and which offers indications that liquid water might have percolated or flowed at this spot billions of years ago.

Barely three weeks ago Opportunity arrived at the rim of the gigantic 14 mile ( 22 km) wide crater named Endeavour after an epic multi-year trek, and for the team its literally been like a 2nd landing on Mars – and the equivalent of the birth of a whole new mission of exploration at an entirely ‘new’ landing site."

via universetoday.com
Rare Martian Lake Delta Spotted by Mars Express
- 10 Sep 2011
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- 09September11 Craters Deltas Discoveries Mars Water
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Holden and Eberswalde Craters

Eberswalde Crater in Context

Delta in Eberswalde Crater

Eberswalde Crater in Perspective

Holden Crater in Perspective

2 September 2011
ESA’s Mars Express has spotted a rare case of a crater once filled by a lake, revealed by the presence of a delta. The delta is an ancient fan-shaped deposit of dark sediments, laid down in water. It is a reminder of Mars’ past, wetter climate.

The delta is in the Eberswalde crater, in the southern highlands of Mars. The 65 km-diameter crater is visible as a semi-circle on the right of the image and was formed more than 3.7 billion years ago when an asteroid hit the planet.

via esa.int
Recent Geological Discoveries and Hypotheses
- 28 Aug 2011
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- 27August11 Cataclysms Craters Discoveries Floods Geology Landslides Volcanoes
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This article will examine ten geological discoveries that have made headlines in the scientific world. The events have all occurred in the last 15,000 years, which is recent in terms of the geologic time scale.

"The largest known rock transported by the Missoula Floods is pictured, located on the Ephrata Fan, near Soap Lake, Washington...."The water flow was nine cubic miles per hour, more than ten times the combined flow of every river in the world. Maximum discharge was about 1.3 billion gallons per second, about 1,000 times the Columbia River’s current average flow."...

experience much more via listverse.com
Caves and Craters
- 26 Aug 2011
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- 25August11 Caves Craters HiRISE Mars
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"Earlier this year, the CTX camera team saw a crater containing a dark spot on the dusty slopes of the Pavonis Mons volcano. We took a closer look at this feature with HiRISE and found this unusual geologic feature.

The dark spot turned out to be a "skylight," an opening to an underground cavern, that is 35 meters (115 feet) across. Caves often form in volcanic regions like this when lava flows solidify on top, but keep flowing underneath their solid crust. These, now underground, rivers of lava can then drain away leaving the tube they flowed through empty. We can use the shadow cast on the floor of the pit to calculate that it is about 20 meters (65 feet) deep."

via hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
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