The Association of Venusian Polygonal Impact Craters with Surrounding Tectonic Structures

Introduction: The Solar System hosts numerous impact craters whose shape in plan view is more or less angular instead of being circular or ellipsoidal. They can be found on all terrestrial planets and also on many icy moons as well as asteroids [1,2]. These craters are called Polygonal Impact Craters (PICs). Thus, they are rather common on bodies that have craters and fractured crusts [e.g. 3,4,5], including Venus [6; see example in Fig. 1]. The available data sets limit the interpretation of the Venusian PICs, but our updated catalogue includes 121 impact craters (Fig. 2), which show at least two adjacent straight rim segments. This number includes only the craters larger than 12 kilometers due to the uncertainties caused by the resolution of the Magellan data.