Meteorite craters mark locations where asteroids collided with Earth. These geological structures range from 110 meters to 300 kilometers in diameter. They often contain distinct minerals like diamonds, nickel, and copper. Scientists use the craters to study Earth's history and cosmic events.
Arizona, United States
An iron meteorite 50 meters wide impacted 50,000 years ago creating this crater with a diameter of 1.2 kilometers.
Yucatán, Mexico
The impact created a 180 kilometer wide crater and caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Free State, South Africa
An asteroid between 10 and 15 kilometers wide struck 2 billion years ago and formed a crater of 300 kilometers in diameter.
Ontario, Canada
A meteorite impact 1.85 billion years ago formed this 250 kilometer long crater containing nickel and copper deposits.
Siberia, Russia
A meteorite impact formed this 100 kilometer structure that led to one of Earth's largest diamond deposits.
Quebec, Canada
The circular lake formed by a meteorite impact 214 million years ago measures 70 kilometers in diameter.
South Australia, Australia
The 590 million year old impact crater extends 90 kilometers and sits in the Lake Gilles area.
Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia
The meteorite impact 70 million years ago formed a 65 kilometer wide crater in the arctic tundra.
Idaho, United States
The impact site dates from 600 million years ago in the Beaverhead Mountains. The crater measures 60 kilometers across with eroded features.
Maharashtra, India
The crater contains a salt water lake spanning 1.8 kilometers in width. The impact occurred 52,000 years ago in basalt rock formations.
Western Australia, Australia
The impact site in the Great Sandy Desert dates from 300,000 years ago. The crater rim rises 25 meters above the surrounding plains.
Dalarna, Sweden
The crater formed 377 million years ago from a meteorite impact. The circular structure spans 52 kilometers across central Sweden.
Saaremaa, Estonia
A meteorite crater field with nine impacts formed during the Bronze Age. The largest crater measures 110 meters, the smallest 4 meters.
Western Australia, Australia
A meteorite impact measuring 30 kilometers in diameter. The rock layers date back 1.7 billion years and indicate signs of a tsunami.
Oklahoma, United States
A buried meteorite impact with a 16 kilometer diameter. The center of the crater contains productive oil deposits.
Saskatchewan, Canada
A meteorite impact with a diameter of 39 kilometers. The raised rock masses in the center contain uranium deposits.
Quebec, Canada
Two round water bodies with diameters of 32 and 22 kilometers, formed when two meteorites struck the Earth's surface.
Ashanti, Ghana
A meteorite crater with a diameter of 10.5 kilometers, filled with a lake spanning 8 kilometers in width.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
A Devonian period meteorite impact crater measuring 28 kilometers in diameter with a central lake.
North West Province, South Africa
A buried meteorite crater from the Jurassic period measuring 70 kilometers in diameter under the Kalahari Desert.
Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada
This 23 kilometer wide impact crater formed 39 million years ago. NASA uses it for geological studies related to Mars research.
Adrar, Mauritania
The crater formed 21,400 years ago from a meteorite impact. Its walls rise 110 meters above the surrounding basalt rocks.
Tatarstan, Russia
The impact crater contains a lake today. Its outer structure consists of sedimentary rock and remnants from the meteorite impact.
Namib Desert, Namibia
The impact crater formed 3.7 million years ago in granite rock. Sand from the Namib Desert now covers the crater floor.
Northern Territory, Australia
A meteorite impact formed this circular depression with a 22 kilometer diameter in the Australian landscape 142 million years ago.
Chile
An impact depression in the Atacama Desert that spans 370 meters in diameter and resulted from a meteorite collision one million years ago.
Kazakhstan
A meteorite collision created this circular depression with an 8 kilometer diameter in Kazakhstan approximately 5 million years ago.
Kazakhstan
A meteorite impact created this geological formation with a 13 kilometer diameter in the Kazakh region 900,000 years ago.
