Comparative planetology

Comparative planetology: Craters.

Venus, Earth, and Mars all have impact craters. However, here there are some differences.

On Venus, there are about 900 impact craters total. They seem to be randomly distributed all over the surface. This suggests that the entire surface is the same age. Also, 900 craters is not very many (it turns out), suggesting that the surface age is relatively young (perhaps 500 million years).

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/venus.html

On Earth, there are about 200 known impact craters. Several interesting observational biases are suggested ....

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/craters.html

Mars has thousands and thousands of craters, everywhere you look.

JPL Planetary Photojournal

What do these crater counts suggest about active volcanos (and other processes)?

Back Next

Back to Lecture 18 outline

Back to lectures page

Back to main course page