Did you know that approximately 500 meteorites hit the earth every year? The majority of them get burned and dissolved in the ozone layer, and what little remains fall to the earth in tiny light-weight bits. The bigger ones, heavy enough to leave a mark, only come around in cycles of about 5,200 years.
These are the ones that create major events, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, once they impact the earth. They leave behind a scar on the face of the earth - something we call a crater. The earth, the moon, and other planets are full of craters gathered over the eons too. On earth, some of them even turned into lakes! Here we bring you a list of the 10 most impressive and massive craters on earth.
1. Barringer crater
- Location: near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States.
- Dimensions: 0.7 miles in diameter, 175 yards deep. The rim is 49 yards above the ground.
- Age: 50,000 years.
2. Pingualuit crater
- Location: Quebec, Canada.
- Dimensions: 2.1 miles in diameter. The crater rises 174 yards above the surrounding tundra and is 437 yards deep.
- Age: 1.4 million years.
3. Wolfe creek crater
- Location: The Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia.
- Dimensions: 0.5 miles in diameter and 27 yards deep. The rim is 33 yards tall.
- Age: 300,000 years.
4. Aorounga crater
- Location: the Sahara Desert, in Chad.
- Dimensions: 7.8 miles in diameter.
- Age: 345 million years.
5. Tswaing crater
- Location: South Africa.
- Dimensions: 0.7 miles in diameter and 109 yards deep.
- Age: estimated between 220,000 and 52,000 years.
6. Manicouagan crater
- Location: Quebec, Canada.
- Dimensions: 62.1 miles across.
- Age: 215.5 million years.
7. Shoemaker crater
- Location: Western Australia.
- Dimensions: 7.4 miles in diameter.
- Age: Uncertain.
8. Gosse’s Bluff
- Location: Central Australia.
- Dimensions: the original crater rim was 13.6 miles across, but it eroded away. The 196 yards high, 3 miles diameter structure that is visible now are the eroded remains of the crater's central uplift.
- Age: 142 million years.
9. Lonar crater
- Location: the Indian village of Lonar, in Maharashtra.
- Dimensions: a mile in diameter and 164 yards deep.
- Age: 52,000 years.
10. Roter Kamm
- Location: the Namib Desert, Africa.
- Dimensions: 1.5 miles in diameter and 142 yards deep. It does appear to be very shallow because it is covered by 109 yards of sand!
- Age: estimated between 4 and 5 million years.
