Mars Crater Database Search

Database as of 2020

This is the landing page for a global database of Martian impact craters. The intent of the database is to provide an approximately complete¹ catalog of all craters with diameters (D) ≥1 km. The database also includes data for depths of craters ≥3 km, some morphology (the crater itself and ejecta) for craters ≥3 km, and a few other notes including the International Astronomical Union official name, as of approximately the year 2011.

Originally, there was a search engine for this database. That has been disabled due to issues, and there is no estimate about when it will be operational again.

To directly download this database, please right-click this link and save the ZIP file to your computer. The file is a tab-separated values file, meaning that it can be copied and pasted into common software such as Microsoft's Excel.

To directly download a 2014 version, please right-click this link and save the ZIP file to your computer. The file is a tab-separated values file, meaning that it can be copied and pasted into common software such as Microsoft's Excel.

To directly download a 2012 version, please right-click this link and save the ZIP file to your computer. The file is a tab-separated values file, meaning that it can be copied and pasted into common software such as Microsoft's Excel.

Please note that there are several caveats to using this crater database, especially as more and better data have been made available over the past decades since it was made. Many of these were detailed in a 2017 conference abstract:

The database was made using an inconsistent and incomplete image base. Specifically, all initial crater identifications were made using the THEMIS Daytime IR mosaics available in 2008–2009, which were about 10% incomplete and produced at 256 pixels/degree, or about 232 meters/pixel. Later efforts when the 2010 mosaics were introduced at 100 m/pix were made to identify craters closer to 1 km, but a wholesale global re-evaluation was not done.
There is a "CONFIDENCE" column in the database that was intended to indicate how well identifications (the fact that there is a crater there) could be trusted. This was, unfortunately, severely under-utilized. Some identified features are also certainly craters, but they are not impact craters; instead, there are some volcanic pit craters and volcanic caledra [craters]. Additionally, craters were simply missed, leading to both false positives and false negatives.
The code I wrote to fit crater rims to circles and ellipses had some bugs; two, specifically. The first bug is that the code did not use Great Circle bearings, which only affect large, nearly polar craters, such as Prometheus (revised diameter is 20% smaller). As such, it was only discovered when analyzing polar lunar craters due to an absence of large polar martian craters. The second bug is due to the ellipse-fitting code returning a solution matrix that sometimes flipped major and minor axes; when corrected originally, the calculated tilt angle should have also been rotated 90°, but it was not, resulting in nearly useless ellipse tilt angles, since the major/minor flipping happened roughly 50% of the time.
The initial database included some crater depths for craters as small as D = 3 km using MOLA topography. However, subsequent work has emphasized MOLA are unreliable for craters smaller than D ≲ 10 km. Also, depth can change significantly depending on exactly what data and method is used to measure it.
Recent comparisons by N. Barlow have demonstrated that there is inconsistency in the database relative to her efforts in crater morphology; given the incomplete image base, sometimes poor images used in the THEMIS mosaic to construct the initial catalog, and subjective nature of assigning morphology, this is perhaps expected, but it nonetheless is an issue that should be investigated further.

With all of this in mind, the point is not to say that this database is useless. The point is to emphasize that this, like any other feature database, should not be used blindly, but it should be treated as a starting point for any investigation, and the researcher should determine if it is accurate enough for their work.

This work was funded by the NASA awards NESSF NNX07AU85H and ROSES NNX10AL65G. Hosting is courtesy of Dr. Robbins. The reference for this work is: Robbins, S.J., and B.M. Hynek (2012). A New Global Database of Mars Impact Craters ≥1 km: 1. Database Creation, Properties, and Parameters. Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets, 117, E05004. doi: 10.1029/2011JE003966.

If you have questions, comments, or think there is a problem with this database, please e-mail Dr. Robbins directly. If you would like to discuss inclusion of your own crater database in this web interface, please contact Dr. Robbins directly.

¹Completeness is based upon a statistical analysis of the craters initially identified and the original database contains an additional ~250,000 craters that are smaller than 1 km and not included in this release (if you would like the additional craters, please contact Dr. Robbins directly). For more information on completeness, please see the Robbins (2011) reference.

²The current general limits on data are for craters with diameters ≥3 km for crater and ejecta morphology and ejecta morphometry. MOLA data may not be available for craters larger than 3 km but it is on a case-by-case basis (roughly 95% have this information, see Robbins & Hynek (2012). However, please note that there is some debate within the community in using MOLA data for craters smaller than 7-10 km and their accuracy.