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A Volcanic Crater in an Impact Crater

A Volcanic Crater in an Impact Crater
Gibran, the large impact crater at the top of today's featured image, hosts a somewhat irregularly shaped 30-km-diameter pit. Such pits are thought to be related to shallow volcanic activity and to have formed due to the withdrawal of near-surface magma, causing the overlying surface to collapse. Impact craters like Gibran with interior volcanic pi

Gibran, the large impact crater at the top of today’s featured image, hosts a somewhat irregularly shaped 30-km-diameter pit. Such pits are thought to be related to shallow volcanic activity and to have formed due to the withdrawal of near-surface magma, causing the overlying surface to collapse. Impact craters like Gibran with interior volcanic pits are known as pit-floor craters. The color image shows that Gibran’s pit does not have the dramatic red color of some explosive volcanic deposits seen on Mercury, consistent with a formation via collapse rather than eruption-but ejecta from the fresh impact crater just to its north complicates the region. North is up in this image.
Date acquired: April 20, 2013Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington