Gibran (crater)
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Arrow indicates pit crater within Gibran
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| Planet | Mercury |
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| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Diameter | 102.0 km[1] |
| Eponym | Khalil Gibran[2] |
Gibran is a crater on Mercury, which was discovered in January 2008 during the first flyby of the planet by MESSENGER spacecraft. It contains a large (29 × 29 km), nearly circular pit crater.[1] Multiple examples of pit craters have been observed on Mercury on the floors of impact craters, leading to the name pit-floor craters for the impact structures that host these features. Unlike impact craters, pit craters are rimless, often irregularly shaped, steep-sided, and often display no associated ejecta or lava flows.[1] These pit craters are thought to be evidence of shallow volcanic activity and may have formed when retreating magma caused an unsupported area of the surface to collapse, creating a pit. They are analogs of Earth's volcanic calderas.[1] Pit-floor craters may provide an indication of internal igneous processes where other evidence of volcanic processes is absent or ambiguous. The discovery of multiple pit-floor craters augments evidence that volcanic activity has been a widespread process in the geologic evolution of Mercury's crust.[3]
References
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