Morphologic classification of Martian craters and some implications

A computer data bank containing information on crater sizes, locations, and morphologies for all craters visible on Mariner 9 wide-angle mapping photography was used to construct a crater morphologic classification. Four general classes were constructed that can be interpreted to represent increasing degrees of crater degradation. Fresh class craters are nearly unmodified and consist of deep bowl-shaped craters and deep, flat-floored craters with terraced walls. The slightly modified class consists of deep flat-floored craters that usually have raised rims, but lack the terracing, central peaks, and hummocky floors indicative of unmodified impact crater morphology. Craters in the modified class are rimless and shallow and those in the ghost class are rimless and extremely shallow. Retention ages for fresh (i.e. unmodified) class craters on equatorial cratered terrain range from millions to billions of years, depending on the impact flux history used. If the trend is toward billions of years, then present degradation rates on Mars are low relative to earlier history and most craters in the degraded classes were probably modified in an early (>3.3 b.y.?) period.