Craters typically will have some or all of the following features:

 a surrounding area with materials splashed out of the ground when the crater was formed;
this is typically lighter in shade than older materials due to exposure to solar radiation for a
lesser time
 raised rim, consisting of materials ejected but landing very close by
 crater wall, the downward-sloping portion of the crater
 crater floor, a more or less smooth, flat area, which as it ages accumulates small craters of
its own
 central peak, found only in some craters with a diameter exceeding 26 kilometres (16 mi);
this is generally a splash effect caused by the kinetic energy of the impacting object being
turned to heat and melting some lunar material.

Lunar crater categorization[edit]

In 1978, Chuck Wood and Leif Andersson of the Lunar & Planetary Lab devised a system of
categorization of lunar impact craters.[9] They used a sampling of craters that were relatively
unmodified by subsequent impacts, then grouped the results into five broad categories. These
successfully accounted for about 99% of all lunar impact craters.
The LPC Crater Types were as follows:

 ALC — small, cup-shaped craters with a diameter of about 10 km or less, and no central
floor. The archetype for this category is Albategnius C.
 BIO — similar to an ALC, but with small, flat floors. Typical diameter is about 15 km. The
lunar crater archetype is Biot.
 SOS — the interior floor is wide and flat, with no central peak. The inner walls are
not terraced. The diameter is normally in the range of 15–25 km. The archetype
is Sosigenes.
 TRI — these complex craters are large enough so that their inner walls have slumped to the
floor. They can range in size from 15–50 km in diameter. The archetype crater
is Triesnecker.
 TYC — these are larger than 50 km, with terraced inner walls and relatively flat floors. They
frequently have large central peak formations. Tycho is the archetype for this class.
Beyond a couple of hundred kilometers diameter, the central peak of the TYC class disappear
and they are classed as basins. Large craters, similar in size to maria, but without (or with small
amount of) dark lava filling, are sometimes called thalassoids.[A][11][12]
Beginning in 2009 Dr. Nadine G. Barlow of Northern Arizona University began to convert the
Wood and Andersson lunar impact-crater database into digital format. [13] Dr. Barlow is also
creating a new lunar impact crater databas