Largest Craters On Earth Formed By Celestial Impacts

Vredefort: Diameter of 170-300 km

The Vredefort crater is one of the largest verified impact structures on Earth. The crater, which has since been eroded away, has been estimated at 170–300 km across when it was formed.

Chicxulub: Diameter of 150 km

The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico measuring 150 km in diameter. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo. It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when a large asteroid, about 10 km in diameter hit the Earth.

Sudbury: Diameter of 130 km

The Sudbury Basin, also known as Sudbury Structure or the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive, is a major geological structure in Ontario, Canada. It is the third-largest known impact crater or astrobleme on Earth. It was formed 1.849 billion years ago in the Paleoproterozoic era.

Popigai: Diameter of 100 km

The Popigai impact structure is the eroded remnant of an impact crater in northern Siberia, Russia. It is tied with the Manicouagan structure as the fourth largest verified impact structure on Earth.

Manicouagan: Diameter of 100 km

Manicouagan Reservoir is an annular lake in central Quebec, Canada, covering an area of 1,942 km². The lake island in its centre is known as René-Levasseur Island, and its highest point is Mount Babel. The structure was created 214 million years ago, in the Late Triassic, by the impact of a meteorite 5 km in diameter.

Acraman: Diameter of 90 km

Acraman crater is a deeply eroded impact crater in the Gawler Ranges of South Australia. Its location is marked by Lake Acraman, a circular ephemeral playa lake about 20 kilometres in diameter. The discovery of the crater and independent discovery of its ejecta were first reported in the journal Science in 1986.

Morokweng: Diameter of 70 km

The Morokweng crater is an impact structure buried beneath the Kalahari Desert near the town of Morokweng in South Africas North West province, close to the border with Botswana.

Kara: Diameter of 65 km

Kara is a meteorite crater in the Yugorsky Peninsula, Nenetsia, Russia. Heavily eroded, it is presently 65 kilometres in diameter, though it is thought to be originally 120 kilometres before erosion. Its age is estimated to be 70.3 ± 2.2 million years old.

Beaverhead: Diameter of 60 km

The Beaverhead crater is the second largest impact structure within the U.S. It lies within the states of Idaho and Montana. Estimated at 60 kilometers in diameter, it is the 9th largest impact crater on Earth.

Tookoonooka: Diameter of 55 km

Tookoonooka is a large meteorite impact crater situated in South West Queensland, Australia. It lies deeply buried within Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of the Eromanga Basin and is not visible at the surface.