Notes on Crater Scaling Results.

The spreadsheet allows one to get the crater size for a given impactor diameter and
velocity for each six material classes. The volume is based on the formulas given in:

Holsapple, K.A., "The Scaling of Impact Processes in Planetary Sciences", Annual

Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences 21 pp333-373, 1993; and in

Schmidt and Housen, Some recent advances in the scaling of impact and explosion
cratering Int. J. Impact Engr. 5: 543-60, 1987.

This is a summary of those results and notes on their interpretation.

The 6 material types are

1. Dry sand
2. Dry soils
3. Water
4. Wet soils
5. Soft (weak) rocks
6. Hard (strong) rocks.

Dry sand and soils are plotted on the first figure, water and wet soils on the second, soft
rocks on the third, and hard rocks on the fourth. All use the dimensionless forms:

rV ga Y
pV = p2 = 2 p3 =
m U rU 2

where r is the target mass density, V the crater volume, m the impactor mass, g the
gravity, U the impact velocity, and Y is an effective material strength. All results use the
same basic form:
3m
2+m -

p V = K p 2 + p 2 2
2+m

where the constant K, the strength Y , and the scaling exponent m vary for the different
3m
materials. This formula is sometimes written using a = . Note also that the p 2
2+m
parameter here does not have the factor or 3.22 that comes from using the alternate
1
g m 3
definition p 2 = commonly used for explosive events, where Q is the energy per
Q d
1
unit mass, which for an impact is given as Q = U 2 . This latter form is used in the
2
Schmidt and Housen reference.
 The parameters for the volumes are:
Material K m a Y (Mpa)
Water 0.98 0.55 0.65 0
Dry sand 0.132 0.41 0.51 0
Dry soils 0.132 0.41 0.51 0.065
Wet soils 0.095 0.55 0.65 0.44
Soft rock 0.095 0.55 0.65 3.0
Hard rock 0.095 0.55 0.65 6.9

These values can be changed in the spreadsheet if the user wants different ones.

For the crater radius in the soils and rocks, I used R=1.33*V1/3. For dry soils, this is
entirely consistent with Schmidt and Housen. For water, I assumed hemispherical
cavities, although the max radius occurs after a hemispherical growth phase.

For the depth, h=0.5*R. The rim height is 0.07*R.

All of that scaling is for simple craters. For the larger complex craters, the Holsapple
reference gives the formula for a complex rim radius R as
0.079
R R
= 1.02
Rr R*
for craters above a transition rim radius R*. The transition is assumed to be R*=8.5 km
for the moon, and assumed to depend inversely on gravity. Thus for gravity measured in
terrestrial gravity (1G=Earth), the formula used is
5 0.167 1.41 10 5
R* = (8.5 10 ) = (cm) .
G G

Then, unfolding the above formula gives that a complex rim radius in tersm of the
transient rim radius as

R(cm) = 0.370 Rr (cm)1.086 G0.086

1.41 10 5
for craters with an excavation rim radius greater than (cm) . (There is a slight
G
discontinuity at Rr=R* as explained in the reference).

Complex crater depth is assumed to be given by Eq. (29) of the Holsapple reference :
0.31
d R
= 0.313
R* R*