Mercury’s surface gravity is more than twice that of the Moon, partly because of the great density of the

planet’s huge iron-sulfur core. The higher gravity tends to keep material ejected from a crater from
traveling as far—only 65 percent of the distance that would be reached on the Moon. This may be one
factor that contributes to the prominence on Mercury of secondary craters—those craters made by
impact of the ejected material, as distinct from primary craters formed directly by asteroid or comet
impacts. The higher gravity also means that the complex forms and structures characteristic of larger
craters—central peaks, slumped crater walls, and flattened floors—occur in smaller craters on Mercury
(minimum diameters of about 10 km [6 miles]) than on the Moon (about 19 km [12 miles]). Craters
smaller than these minimums have simple bowl shapes. Mercury’s craters also show differences from
those on Mars, although the two planets have comparable surface gravities. Fresh craters tend to be
deeper on Mercury than craters of the same size on Mars; this may be because of a lower content of
volatile materials in the Mercurian crust or higher impact velocities on Mercury (since the velocity of an
object in solar orbit increases with its nearness to the Sun).

Craters on Mercury larger than about 100 km (60 miles) in diameter begin to show features indicative of
a transition to the “bull’s-eye” form that is the hallmark of the largest impact basins. These latter
structures, called multiring basins and measuring 300 km (200 miles) or more across, are products of the
most-energetic impacts. Several dozen multiring basins were tentatively recognized on the imaged
portion of Mercury; Messenger images and laser altimetry contributed greatly to the understanding of
these remnant scars from early asteroidal bombardment of Mercury.

(Source: britannica.com)