Beckett (crater)

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Beckett
Beckett crater.png
MESSENGER mosaic
Feature typeImpact crater
Location Neruda quadrangle, Mercury
Coordinates 40°12′S248°43′W / 40.20°S 248.71°W / -40.20; -248.71
Diameter60.0 km (37.3 mi)
Eponym Clarice Beckett

Beckett is a pit-floored crater on Mercury, which was discovered in January 2008 during the first flyby of the planet by the MESSENGER spacecraft. [1] The crater was named in November 2008 by the IAU, after Australian artist Clarice Beckett. [2]

Its floor is not smooth and displays a telephone or arc-shaped collapse feature, which is also called a central pit. The size of the pit is 35 × 7.5 km. [3] Such a feature may have resulted from the collapse of a magma chamber underlying the central part of the crater [3] (see also Gibran, Glinka, and Picasso). The collapse feature is an analog of Earth's volcanic calderas. [4] Beckett may be a site of explosive volcanism. [5] The crater Grainger to the southwest of Beckett also shows signs of explosive volcanism.

References

  1. ↑ "MESSENGER Views an Intriguing Crater". JHU/APL. January 20, 2008. Archived from the original on November 20, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2009.
  2. ↑ Beckett, Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN)
  3. 1 2 Gillis-Davis, Jeffrey J.; Blewett, David T.; Gaskell, Robert W.; Denevi, Brett W.; Robinson, Mark S.; Strom, Robert G.; Solomon, Sean C.; Sprague, Ann L. (2009). "Pit-floor craters on Mercury: Evidence of near-surface igneous activity". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 285 (3–4): 243–250. Bibcode:2009E&PSL.285..243G. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.05.023.
  4. ↑ "A Newly Pictured Pit-Floor Crater". JHU/APL. September 30, 2009. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2009.
  5. 1 2 Thomas, R. J., D. A. Rothery, S. J. Conway, and M. Anand (2014), Long-lived explosive volcanism on Mercury, Geophys. Res. Lett., 41, 6084–6092, doi:10.1002/2014GL061224.


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