Britannica
Sources used in this answer
- meteorite crater - The impact-cratering process
- meteorite crater - Meteorite craters as measures of geologic activity
- crater
- meteorite crater - Variations in craters across the solar system
- meteorite crater
- plate tectonics - Convergent margins
- Mars - Southern cratered highlands
- plate tectonics - Subduction zones
How do erosion, volcanism, and plate tectonics erase impact craters on Earth?
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Meteorite crater
Four impact craters of the same size (30 km [20 miles] in diameter) imaged by spacecraft on different solid bodies of the solar system and reproduced at the same scale. They are (clockwise from upper left) Golubkhina crater on Venus, Kepler crater on the Moon, an unnamed crater on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and an unnamed crater on Mars. The images are oriented such that the craters appear illuminated from the left; the Venusian crater is imaged in radar wavelengths, the others in visible light.
On Earth, impact craters are frequently obscured or eliminated by active geologic processes, which explains why they are far less common on our planet than on other solid bodies in the solar system. These processes include:12
- Erosion: This is the dominant force in destroying craters on Earth. Through the hydrologic cycle, water and other environmental factors gradually wear down the crater’s rim and fill the depression with sediment, eventually obscuring the impact site.13
- Volcanism: Volcanic activity can erase craters by flooding the surface with basaltic flows or other volcanic materials, effectively resurfacing the area and burying the original impact structure.1
- Plate Tectonics: Earth’s crust is continuously recycled through plate tectonic processes. At convergent plate boundaries, older oceanic crust is subducted into the mantle, where it is destroyed and recycled. This constant renewal of the Earth's surface ensures that older craters are eventually removed as the crust itself is consumed.14
While these processes are unique in their intensity on Earth, volcanic and tectonic activities are also capable of eliminating large craters on other planetary bodies.1