Terrestrial life of explosive meteoritic craters

The evolution of meteorite craters is discussed, a classification into three types by size is presented and various hypotheses are considered as to the shapes of craters. The results of rigid calculations of the problems of evolution of forms, involving the characteristics and behavior of meteorite craters, the lithosphere and the viscous asthenosphere, and the observed forms of various specific meteorite structures in Canada and the Soviet Union are compared. Fields for further search for meteorite craters on the earth and possible usefulness of such studies are discussed.