What is the biggest crater recorded on Earth?
There are three craters which could qualify as the biggest, because the sizes of many craters are uncertain. One of the biggest is the Sudbury crater in Ontario, Canada, which is 200-250 km in diameter. There are a couple other large craters as well. The crater in Vredefort, South Africa is 150-300 km. (It's hard to measure the exact sizes of these craters because they are old and have been mostly eroded. So when I look up the sizes I get many different numbers, which I just listed here as a range.) The Chicxulub crater (which is the crater that formed at the end of the Cretaceous period) is about 175 km across.
Still Curious?
Get More 'Curious?' with Our New PODCAST:
- Podcast? Subscribe? Tell me about the Ask an Astronomer Podcast
- Subscribe to our Podcast | Listen to our current Episode
- Cool! But I can't now. Send me a quick reminder now for later.
Related questions:
More questions about Comets, Meteors and Asteroids: Previous | Next
More questions about The Earth: Previous | Next
How to ask a question:
If you have a follow-up question concerning the above subject, submit it here. If you have a question about another area of astronomy, find the topic you're interested in from the archive on our site menu, or go here for help.
Main Page | About Us | For Teachers | Astronomy Links | Ask a Question | View a Random Question | Our Podcast
URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=477
This page has been accessed 40550 times since March 4, 2003.
Last modified: June 4, 2003 9:46:37 PM
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.
Warning: Your browser is misbehaving! This page might look ugly. (Details)