Complex crater formation by oblique impacts on the Earth and Moon

TL;DR

This study uses simulations to analyze how impact angle affects complex crater formation on Earth and the Moon, revealing that oblique impacts produce larger craters than previously predicted and influence crater population estimates.

Contribution

It provides new simulation-based insights into how impact angle influences crater size and morphology, improving existing scaling relationships for oblique impacts.

Findings

Crater diameter exceeds existing predictions for oblique impacts.

Impacts steeper than 45° show little dependence on obliquity.

Oblique impacts can cause underestimation of large crater counts by up to 40%.

Abstract

Almost all meteorite impacts occur at oblique incidence angles, but the effect of impact angle on crater size is not well understood, especially for large craters. To improve oblique impact crater scaling, we present a suite of simulations of complex crater formation on Earth and the Moon over a range of impact angles, velocities and impactor sizes. We show that crater diameter is larger than predicted by existing scaling relationships for oblique impacts and for impacts steeper than 45$^{\circ}$ shows little dependence on obliquity. Crater depth, volume and diameter depend on impact angle in different ways such that relatively shallower craters are formed by more oblique impacts. Our simulation results have implications for how crater populations are determined from impactor populations and vice-versa. Our results suggest that existing approaches to account for impact obliquity may underestimate the number of craters larger than a given size by as much as 40%.