Valhalla (crater) - Origin

Origin

The Valhalla multi-ring structure (like other Callistan multi-ring basins) probably resulted from a giant impact, which punctured the outer ridged lithosphere of the moon and entered the underlying layer consisting of a much softer material. The latter can be warm ice or even a liquid ocean, which existence was implied from the magnetometric data. The formation of a ringed structure is caused by the concentric failure of the brittle outer shell (lithosphere) following the impact, after the soft material underlying the lithosphere flows towards the center to fill the cavity excavated by the impact. The absolute age of the Valhalla structure is not known; however, it is the youngest such feature among the five known multi-ring structures on Callisto. Estimates of its age vary from 2 to 4 billion years.

Consistent with this picture, imaging by the Galileo spacecraft found no evidence of disruption of the area of Callisto antipodal to Valhalla. Such disrupted terrain normally forms as a result of focusing of the seismic energy at the opposite point after the impact. The absence of such disruption supports the presence of a subsurface ocean, which would have absorbed much of the seismic energy, at the time of Valhalla's formation.