Very large impact craters greater than 300 kilometers (185 miles) across are called impact basins. What influences the size and shape of a crater? The size and shape of the crater and the amount of material excavated depends on factors such as the velocity and mass of the impacting body and the geology of the surface.
- What is the largest crater on Earth?
- How big is a large crater?
- How big is the average crater?
- What is a large crater?
- When did the last crater hit Earth?
- How big is the crater that killed the dinosaurs?
- How big is the crater in Arizona?
- How big was the asteroid that hit Arizona?
- How deep is the deepest crater on Earth?
What is the largest crater on Earth?
The Vredefort crater The Vredefort crater /ˈfrɪərdəfɔːrt/ is the largest verified impact crater on Earth. It was 160–300 km (100–200 mi) across when it was formed; and what remains of it is in the present-day Free State province of South Africa.
How big is a large crater?
The largest impact crater on Earth, the Vredefort crater in South Africa, is 99 miles (160 km) wide and was likely created about 2 billion years ago, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
How big is the average crater?
Most craters between 20 and 175 km in diameter and complex craters. Larger impact basins, like the 310 km diameter Schrödinger crater and 330 km diameter Mare Orientale, generally have ring-shaped uplifted regions in the centre of the crater. Impact basins are usually at least 300 km in diameter.
What is a large crater?
The oldest impact crater on Earth is also the largest. Vredefort crater in South Africa, also called the Vredefort Dome, was originally 185 miles (300 kilometers) across, scientists estimate. A meteorite or asteroid bigger than South Africa's Table Mountain blasted out the giant crater 2.02 billion years ago.
When did the last crater hit Earth?
66 million years ago The last known impact of an object of 10 km (6 mi) or more in diameter was at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago.
How big is the crater that killed the dinosaurs?
Dino-killing asteroid: How big was it? The dimensions of Chicxulub Crater — about 90 miles wide by 12 miles (20 km) deep — give us a rough idea of the impactor's size. For example, Siraj and Loeb calculated that the incoming object was likely about 4.3 miles (7 km) wide.
How big is the crater in Arizona?
0.75 miles Meteor Crater measures 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometers) across and about 600 feet (180 meters) deep. The size of the asteroid that produced the impact is uncertain—likely in the range of 100 to 170 feet (30 to 50 meters) across—but it had to be large enough to excavate 175 million metric tons of rock.
How big was the asteroid that hit Arizona?
30 to 50 meter diameter Barringer Meteor Crater and Its Environmental Effects. Forty-nine thousand years ago, a large 30 to 50 meter diameter iron asteroid impacted the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona. The resulting massive explosion excavated 175 million tons of rock, forming a crater nearly a mile wide and 570 feet deep.
How deep is the deepest crater on Earth?
Meteor Crater | Arizona, U.S. 35°2′N 111°1′W. 37 miles (60 km) east of Flagstaff, Arizona lies Meteor Crater, which is also called Barringer Crater in honor of geologist Daniel Barringer, who first suggested it was created by a meteorite impact. The crater is 3,900 feet (1,200 m) in diameter and 560 feet (170 m) deep.