![]() Central peaks – Peaks formed in the central area of the floor of a large crater.Floor – The bottom of a crater, either bowl-shaped or flat, usually below the level of the surrounding ground.The edges of these larger craters also may slump, creating terraces that step down into the crater. If an impactor is large enough, some of the material pushed toward the edges of the crater will slump back toward the center and the rock beneath the crater will rebound, or push back up, creating a central peak in the crater. Sometimes the force of the impact is great enough to melt some of the local rock. The impactor is shattered into small pieces and may melt or vaporize. The impact sprays material - ejecta - out in all directions. The shock wave fractures the rock and excavates a large cavity (much larger than the impactor). When an impactor strikes the solid surface of a planet, a shock wave spreads out from the site of the impact. Geologic processes have not erased the craters with time. The large number of craters in this region indicates that this part of the Moon is quite ancient. These are impact craters, each of which was formed when an asteroid or comet collided with the Moon's surface. This portion of the Moon is covered by numerous circular holes.
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