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Categorization of craters has been a source of recurring confusion over the years on Wikipedia. This essay presents lessons learned and best practices for creating and using categories about various kinds of craters. It also includes advice on what not to categorize as a crater.
The dictionary definitions of a crater require, for geological uses, that it must have been caused by some kind of explosion or eruption.[1][2]
The source of the confusion comes from the use of the word "crater" for several unrelated geological processes involving asteroid impacts, volcanic eruptions, or nuclear and chemical explosions. Over the years, many editors have looked at a topic and referred to it just as a "crater", leading to jumbled, disorganized categories containing articles and files with a mix of all kinds.
There are also some geological formations and map illusions which commonly are mistaken for craters. So this page will also point out items which should not be categorized as any kind of crater, and where to put them instead.
- ^ "crater". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
- ^ "crater". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.