Abstract
Dynamic mechanism of crater formation process caused by meteorite impacts plays an important role in the evolution of topography and geology on planet surface. The present study surveyed the morphological features and rock abundance of 136 relatively fresh impact craters on the moon by using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) of NASA and compared with 2-D Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations. The simulation results quantitatively reproduced the diameter-depth relation and central peak formation. Moreover, it turned out that the material forming the central peak comes from several kilometers deep underground because of the circular slip mechanism commonly observed in slope failure analysis in geomechanics. It was also found that the large-scale circular slip modifies the morphological trend of crater which causes the bilinear relation of diameter-depth curve in log-log plot.
