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Natural impacts in which the projectile strikes the target vertically are virtually nonexistent. Nevertheless, our inherent drive to simplify nature often causes us to suppose most impacts are nearly vertical. Recent theoretical, observational, and experimental work is improving this situation, but even with the current wealth of studies on impact cratering, the effect of impact angle on the final crater is not well understood. Although craters’ rims may appear circular down to low impact angles, the distribution of ejecta around the crater is more sensitive to the angle of impact and currently serves as the best guide to obliquity of impacts. Experimental studies established that crater dimensions depend only on the vertical component of the impact velocity. The shock wave generated by the impact weakens with decreasing impact angle. As a result, melting and vaporization depend on impact angle; however, these processes do not seem to depend on the vertical component of the velocity alone. Finally, obliquity influences the fate of the projectile: in particular, the amount and velocity of ricochet are a strong function of impact angle.

▪ Abstract The detailed morphology of impact craters is now believed to be mainly caused by the collapse of a geometrically simple, bowl-shaped “transient crater.” The transient crater forms immediately after the impact. In small craters, those less than approximately 15 km diameter on the Moon, the steepest part of the rim collapses into the crater bowl to produce a lens of broken rock in an otherwise unmodified transient crater. Such craters are called “simple” and have a depth-to-diameter ratio near 1:5. Large craters collapse more spectacularly, giving rise to central peaks, wall terraces, and internal rings in still larger craters. These are called “complex” craters. The transition between simple and complex craters depends on 1/g, suggesting that the collapse occurs when a strength threshold is exceeded. The apparent strength, however, is very low: only a few bars, and with little or no internal friction. This behavior requires a mechanism for temporary strength degradation in the rocks surrounding the impact site. Several models for this process, including acoustic fluidization and shock weakening, have been considered by recent investigations. Acoustic fluidization, in particular, appears to produce results in good agreement with observations, although better understanding is still needed.