10 Greatest Major-Impact Craters on Earth
Fri, Jul 18, 2008
Image by 1
Imagine staring into the sky and seeing a tiny yellow dot, gradually getting closer. That dot doubles in size every second, until it slowly darkens the sky. You realize that this dot is actually the size of New York City and is screeching through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound, coming right for you. This massive object will cause tsunamis, earthquakes and obliterate natural daylight for years…oh… and it will kill you. Similar asteroid impacts have and will happen on numerous occasions in our earth’s history. Today we’ll show you the biggest impact craters by diameter.
10. Barringer Crater, Arizona, US
Some 49,000 years ago a large nickel-iron meteorite “just” 150 ft across, weighing several hundred thousand tons (~300,000) and traveling at a speed of 40,000 miles per hour, hit Earth. The result of this meteor lies 55 km east of Flagstaff, Arizona and is called the Barringer Crater: the best preserved impact crater ever. The force generated by the impact was equal to the explosion of 20 million tons of TNT. Picture that.
It measures 0.75 miles (1.2 km) across, is 575 ft (175 m) deep and has a rim 148 ft (45 m) higher than the surrounding plain. Discovered in 1902, the Barringer Crater was named after Daniel Barringer, a successful mining engineer. Today it is still owned by his family and is also known as Meteor Crater, Coon Butte, and Canyon Diablo.
9. Bosumtwi, Ghana
About 30 km south-east of Kumasi, Ghana, in the crystalline bedrock of the West African Shield, lies Lake Bosumtwi: the country’s only natural lake. The impact of a meteorite some 1.3 million years ago, opened up hole in the ground with a 6 mile (10.5 km) diameter. The crater gradually got filled with water to form the lake we see today. Surrounded by dense rainforest, the Ashanti people consider it to be sacred. They think it’s the place where souls of the dead come to bid farewell to the god Twi.
8. Deep Bay, Canada
Image by Ersi
Situated near the south-western tip of Reindeer Lake in Saskatchewan, Canada, Deep Bay is a strikingly circular, very deep and unusually irregular and shallow lake. The 8 mile (13km) wide crater is a complex impact structure with a low, totally submerged central uplift, formed about 100 million years ago (some say 140 million) when a large meteorite crashed in the area.
7. Aorounga impact crater, Chad
Aorounga is an eroded meteorite impact crater that formed 2-300 million years ago in an area of the Sahara Desert, northern Chad, in Africa, when a comet or asteroid with a 1 mile diameter (1.6 km across) hit the crust of Earth. Such impacts only happen roughly, once every million years.
The crater is about 11 miles (17 km) across and is accompanied by two nearby circular features that have been revealed by the Space Shuttle’s SIR-C radar after picturing an area of about 22 miles (36 km). If the assumptions and the hypothesis that the dark band in the upper right corner could be a second impact crater, then Aorounga may be part of a chain of multiple impact craters.
6. Gosses Bluff, Australia
Approximately 142 million years ago, a large asteroid or comet (22 km in diameter) crashed at 40 km/sec in the southern Northern Territory, near the center of Australia, and released massive energy equivalent to 22 000 megatonnes of TNT. This is how one of the most significant impact structures in the world, the Gosses Bluff crater formed. Dimensions are also impressive: it has a 15 mile (24km) diameter and goes down to 16,400 ft (5,000m). What we get to see today is a highly eroded structure that still stands as a stark reminder of the event.
5. Mistastin Lake, Canada
Image 1
Located in Labrador, Canada, the Mistastin crater is the result of a meteorite crash, that caused a 17.4 miles (28km) wide giant hole into the ground, 38 million years ago. Since then the eastward moving glaciers have drastically reduced its size and a lake appeared within the rims, Mistastin Lake. It occupies an elliptical, east–north-east trending depression, approximately 11 by 7 miles in size. In the middle of the lake, there’s an arcuate central island which could be the central uplift of the complex crater structure.
4. Clearwater lakes, Canada
Two circular lakes/impact craters on the Canadian Shield in Quebec formed simultaneously by the impact of an asteroid pair which crashed on Earth approximately 290 million years ago, near the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. The larger of the two craters is West Clearwater Lake with a 20 mile (32km) diameter while the smaller one, East Clearwater Lake has a 13.7 mile (22km) diameter. The lakes are a great tourist location mostly because of the number of sprinkling islands that form a sort of a “dotted line”. The lakes are also, obviously, famous for their clear waters.
3. Kara-Kul, Tajikistan
At an altitude of 13,000 feet (3,900 m) above sea level, lies Kara-Kul, also known as Qarokul: a 16 mile (25km) wide lake in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan, close to the Chinese border. The lake is actually located within a 28 mile (45km) wide circular depression, which was hit by a meteorite approximately 5 million years ago, Kara-kul was only discovered recently, through satellite imagery.
2. Manicouagan, Canada
Manicouagan Reservoir (Lake Manicouagan) also known as the “eye of Quebec”, is an annular lake in central Quebec, Canada, that lies within the remains of an ancient, eroded impact crater. Some 212 million years ago, a 3 mile (5km) wide asteroid hit the earth, to causing a 62 mile (100km) wide giant hole. It has been worn away by the passing of glaciers and other erosive processes, ever since.
1. Chicxulub, Mexico
Buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, near the Chicxulub village (which means “the tail of the devil” in Mayan), this ancient impact crater is simply huge at 105 miles (170km) in diameter. The impact happened roughly 65 million years ago when a comet or asteroid the size of a small city crashed (equivalent to 100 teratons of TNT) on Earth and caused destructive mega-tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the globe.
The Chicxulub impact is widely believed to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs, because of a global firestorm or because of a dramatic and widespread greenhouse effect that caused long-term environmental changes.
If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subscribe to our RSS feed? We’ll even throw in a free album.
3 Trackbacks For This Post
-
Atheist.nu » 10 Greatest Major-Impact Craters on Earth Says:
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 am[...] Published by larrinski at 7:10 pm under Random The major theory prevalent today of the cause for extinction of the dinosaurs is a big ass meteor strike. The impact crater of that event is supposedly at the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. That hit made the #1 spot in the top 10 greatest major-impact craters on earth. I am a little concerned however 3 or the 10 are in Canada! What crappy odds… Isn’t Russia bigger than us? Shouldn’t they be the top dog? [From 10 Greatest Major-Impact Craters on Earth : Environmental News Blog | Environmental Graffiti [...]
-
ReducedMass.com - Science blog for the casually curious. » Science pictures to make you go WOW! Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 8:29 am[...] Earth, looking down at it. While not as visually pleasing, the pictures in this collection of the 10 Greatest Major-Impact Craters on Earth (actually from the same cool picture site, http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com) really tell their story, [...]
-
meneame.net Says:
July 27th, 2008 at 11:21 amLos 10 mayores cráteres de impacto…
En http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com nos muestran los 10 mayores cráteres de impacto sobre la Tierra por diámetro. Del cráter Barringer en Arizona a Chicxulub en México, alguno tan grande como para crear extinciones masivas….
July 18th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I always thought this looks pretty impacty:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=56.46249,-79.958496&spn=6.876196,22.719727&t=h&z=6
July 18th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Here too, just on a smaller scale. What’s up with Canada and it’s large amount of strikes? Is it just because of the size of the landmass?
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=56.46249,-79.958496&spn=6.876196,22.719727&t=h&z=6
July 18th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
You forgot the Chesapeake Bolide. Google it!
July 18th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Lonar Crater in India is also a good one. How come it is missed
July 18th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
hmmm, that does look suspiciously impacty. Perhaps it’s yet another crater to add to Canada’s illicit history of being slammed into by space rocks.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
What about Vredefort?
July 18th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Had to go and ruin a great article with “and widespread greenhouse effect that caused long-term environmental changes” didn’t you.
Actually the aerosols kicked up by the impact had the opposite effect and obscurred the Sun for years.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Another interesting impact was at the Nördlinger Ries (wikipedia), being 24km in diameter around 14 million years ago. It’s rather hard to spot on satellite images, being used as farm land for some x-thousand years, but the 700m wide rock that crashed there erased everything in a 60 miles radius in an instant, and has thrown boulder fragments as far as 300 miles away. Oh, and it turned the ground 10 miles deep into rubble.
July 19th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Canada was “wiped clean” by glaciers during the last ice age - perhaps that’s why it’s impacts are more visible. There are probably just as many elsewhere, but buried by overburden.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
John: I have this feeling as well. Look at any rocky planet in our solar system. “peppered”. I’m sure earth is no different.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
How about the Sudbury Crater?
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/Sudbury_Crater.html
The eroded remains of a giant, 1.85-billion-year-old impact crater in Ontario, Canada. The Sudbury Crater, at almost 200 km across, is roughly the size of the much younger Chicxulub Basin. But whereas the latter is believed to have been caused by an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, along with many other life forms at the K-T boundary, it appears that the Sudbury Crater was formed by a comet.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
As we all know, most of the Earth is water. I wonder how many deadly strikes hit the ocean in Earth’s history? Could an ocean strike still have global repurcussions or have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?
July 19th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Unfortunately, The Vredefort Crater was left out, which is the oldest and largest visible meteor impact crater in the world, twice the size of the Chicxulub crater associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs. I think a little more research will go a great way, after all, this is a World Heritage site and many experts agree, it is the biggest and most visible in the entire world. Thanks.
July 19th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
As someone mentioned above this article actually failed to include the single largest “verified” crater on Earth the Vredefort impact structure in South Africa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vredefort_crater
Number two in size also didn’t make the list, the Sudbury, Ontario Canada crater:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Basin
If confirmed, a major contender for “greatest” of all is the Wilkes Land crater in East Antarctica:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkes_Land_crater
July 19th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
there is also kebira in egypt. it comes in at about 31 km in diameter.
July 19th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Then there’s the Siljan ring in sweden. Some 360 M years old, 55 KM across. Not as pretty as the canadian and australian ones, but there’s been a few ice-ages grinding away on the bedrock.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=60.99975,15.010071&spn=0.664453,1.820984&t=h&z=9
July 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
where the hell do you place the Sudbury Basin found in Greater Sudbury, Ontario? it is by far much larger then chicxulub crater!
From wikipedia:
The Sudbury Basin is 62 km long, 30 km wide and 15 km deep. It was created as the result of a 10 km meteorite impact…
….Its present size is believed to be a smaller portion of a 250 km round crater
July 19th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
“Deep Bay is a strikingly circular, very deep and unusually irregular and shallow lake.”
Um… deep or shallow? I don’t grok.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:49 am
FYI, you can also see the Clearwater Lakes craters on the right edge of the links posted above. The Canadian Shield is very old rock, geologically, so it is preserving hundreds of millions of years of impact data, not just tens of millions as in many other places.
July 20th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Eastern Canada is comprised of lots of very old rocks. When you have been around for a long time, you get kind of beat up.
July 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Questionably, the whole Czech Republic is a very old crater http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=49.546598,14.996338&spn=5.090198,8.173828&t=k&z=7
July 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 am
“Canada was “wiped clean” by glaciers during the last ice age - perhaps that’s why it’s impacts are more visible. There are probably just as many elsewhere, but buried by overburden.”
That’s terrible! How can we stop these glaciers and their destructive ways? Must be Republicans.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
More great photos of impact craters on National Geographic’s website, including a wht happened when an object the size of a 15-story building exploded over Siberia, and the latest on what scientists are planning to do to avoid the next killer asteroid:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/earth-scars/stone-text
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
What about Wolf Creek Meteorite Crater in Australia?
19º10′22″ S
127º47′38″ E
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
You also forgot the Manson Crater, located under Manson, Iowa. 38 km diameter, 74 million years old. Unfortunately it is impossible to see due to the glaciers of the last ice age, which filled it with soil and flattened all the surrounding area to the same level.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Sometimes, it ain’t what ya don’t know, but what ya know for sure that just ain’t so… For an alternative explanation of crater formation please check out thunbolts.info. I do not ask that you believe this explanation, only that you consider it, neither disbelieving nor believing. Thank you for your willingness to explore your world view!
July 24th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Man, seems like we are target practice for the cosmos. I know the others see the same (or more) amount of meteors and stuff, but still.. Feel like we’re playing dodgeball with the universe.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Please include ” Lonar ” Impact Crater in Central India
1.4kilometer diameter & having a deep salt water lake
August 15th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Please up-date this… Barrington shouldn’t even be on a list of “10 greatest major” well in what sense? Popularity? Degree of fame? At first glance it seems size is your category… By that you should be excluding Chicxulub as no.1. and Barrington oof this list. There are several website indexes of proven impact structures you can research to up date this list. With advancing satellite technologies and public access to programs like google earth many new finds are happening…
August 15th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Please up-date this… Barrington shouldn’t even be on a list of “10 greatest major” well in what sense? Popularity? Degree of fame? At first glance it seems size is your category… By that you should be excluding Chicxulub as no.1. and Barrington off this list. There are several website indexes of proven impact structures you can research to up date this list. With advancing satellite technologies and public access to programs like google earth many new finds are happening…