Craters On Earth | Universe Today

Written by Jerry Coffey

There are over 170 craters on Earth. It would take pages after page to write about them all. What I'll do in this article is take ten of the most interesting ones and write a little bit about each one. There are certainly going to be different opinion about which craters should be on this list, but I hope that each reader can agree with a few of the choices here and maybe take some new information away after they read this article. At the very least I hope that you will want to do more research on some of the list of craters of Earth.

Vredefort Crater
It is my firm belief that the Wilkes Land crater will someday be confirmed as the largest impact crater here on Earth, but for now Vredefort Crater is the largest of all of the craters on Earth. Before the effects of erosion destroyed part of the crater an nearly eliminated its rim(it is 2 billion years old after all.) the Vredefort crater was 300 km in diameter and 5 km deep. The current crater has been reduced to a paltry 90 km in diameter. Still not bad, but Wilkes Land is500 km in daimeter.

Chicxulub Crater
The significance of the Chicxulub crater would put in the top spot on some peoples lists of the craters on Earth. It has had a definite impact on the life forms on this planet, but the largest confirmed crater deserves the number one spot. This impact event is thought to have destroyed over 50% of the life on Earth. It is also the third largest crater on the planet. The tsunamis, acid rain, blocked sun, and earthquakes caused by this city sized asteroid would have certainly been capable of such destruction.

Aorounga Crater
The Aorounga Crater is possible the only crater on Earth that is a triple crater. It is thought that there was a multiple impact event in the area. If that is true, then the main impactor may have had two moons and all three hit at nearly the same time. Either that or lightening really does strike twice in the same spot. Another possibility is that the Earth's atmosphere ripped one asteroid into several pieces just before impact. Whatever theory you choose to believe, Aorounga deserves a little more research by you and science.

Clearwater Craters
Clearwater Craters is another multiple impact event. The nearly twin, lake filled craters are located in Quebec, Canada. Clearwater West is 32 km in diameter and Clearwater East is 22 km in diameter. They were formed by two separate impact events. It is thought that the impact events were related. Possible one asteroid cracked in half before hitting the Earth.

Barringer Crater
The Barringer crater is probably best known for being the most well preserved of the craters on Earth. It is only 1.2 km in diameter and 175m deep, but is too well preserved to ignore. The crater was formed by an iron meteorite that was probably 50 m in diameter. To date about 30 tons of the meteorites material has been recovered. The Barringer family still owns the site and you can tour the area including the mining facilities at the crater's center. It took Mr. Barringer nearly a lifetime to get the crater certified, but he never wavered in his belief. Barringer was the first crater on Earth to be certified as an impact event.

Bosumtwi Crater
Bosumtwi Crater is number 6 on this list or craters on Earth because of the its incredible scenery and the important role it plays in the lives of the native people in Ghana. The lake that has filled the crater is believed to be sacred and provide fish for over 70,000 people in the area. The crater is 10.5 km in diameter and slightly more than 1 million years old. The erosion of the water and the dense rainforest surrounding the crater make it impossible to tell the original size of the impact event.

Sudbury Crater
The Sudbury Basin is the second largest of the craters on Earth. The Sudbury crater is 62 km long, 30 km wide and 15 km deep. It was created as the result of a 10 km meteorite impacting the Earth. The original crater is believed to have been over 250 km in diameter. There is a heavy concentration of metals in the area. As a result of these metal deposits, the Sudbury area is one of the world's major mining communities. The region is one of the world's largest suppliers of nickel and copper ores. Most of these mineral deposits are found on the outer rim of the basin.

Manicouagan Crater
Canada seems to have more than its fair share of large impact craters. Manicouagan Crater is the fifth largest of the craters on Earth. It is located in Quebec, Canada. It is about 212 million years old. It is now an ice covered lake that is 70 km wide. The original crater is thought to have been 100 km in diameter. It has been suggested that Manicouagan crater may have been part of a hypothetical multiple impact event which also formed the Rouchechourt crater in France, Saint Martin crater in Manitoba, Obolon crater in the Ukraine, and Red Wing crater in North Dakota. Geophysicist David Rowley of the University of Chicago, working with John Spray of the University of New Brunswick and Simon Kelley of the Open University, discovered that the five craters formed a chain, indicating the breakup and subsequent impact of an asteroid or comet.

Wolfe Creek Crater
Wolfe Creek Crater is a huge crater on the very edge a little known desert in Western Australia. It is 853 m in diameter and 46 m deep. The crater is thought to have been twice as deep when it was formed, but has filled in with sand over the centuries. Very little has been found of the meteoric material that formed the crater mostly some very worn shale balls have been the sum total of it. The shale balls are made of iron oxide and have weighed as much as 250 kg. The walls are made of rock, mostly quartzite.

Chesapeake Bay Crater
The Chesapeake Bay crater is the largest in the United States and the 7th largest of the craters on Earth. It is one of the best preserved “wet target” impact craters on Earth. The crater is 85 km in diameter and 1.3 km deep. It was formed about 35.5 million years ago. The Chesapeake Bay Crater has had an immeasurable impact on the growth of a nation.

Hopefully, you can agree that there are significant reasons to list these 10 as some of the most interesting craters on Earth. Also, I hope that you feel a need to do more research on some, if not all, of them. Research and science are the only ways to clear up the mysteries of the past and steer the future.

Filed under: Astronomy

Tags: Aorounga Crater, barringer crater, Bosumtwi Crater, Chesapeake Bay Crater, Chicxulub Crater, Clearwater Craters, craters on Earth, Manicouagan Crater, Sudbury Crater, Vredefort Crater, wolfe creek crater