Bacolor (crater)

Bacolor Crater

Bacolor Crater Ejecta, as seen by HiRISE. Scale bar is 1000 meters long.
Planet	Mars
Coordinates	33°N 241.4°W / 33; -241.4
Quadrangle	Casius
Diameter	20.8 km
Eponym	Bacolor, Pampanga, Philippines

Bacolor Crater is a crater in the Casius quadrangle of Mars, located at 33 North and 241.4 West. It is 20.8 km in diameter and was named after the town of Bacolor in the Philippines.

The crater shows a double layer of ejecta. The inner layer came first. The impact's heat vaporized the ground and of course any ice where the meteorite struck. Shock waves spread outward from the impact point, smashing rocks and heaving the fragments skyward, along with steam and other hot gases. As the shock wave dug deeper, it excavated a bowl-shaped hole in the ground. A thick, probably hot, slurry of mud, water vapor, and rock fragments flew away from the growing cavity and fell to the ground, making the inner ejecta apron. The innermost portion of this layer covered the ground thickly and, near the crater rim, shows numerous signs of having flowed at least sluggishly.

Gallery

• 
  Bacolor Crater, as seen by CTX
• 
  Bacolor crater's rim sits 4,200 meters below areoid (Mars' mean elevation analogous to sea level on earth) and the bottom is 5,800 meters below areoid.

See also

• Casius quadrangle
• Impact crater
• Impact event
• List of craters on Mars
• Ore resources on Mars
• Planetary nomenclature