The most impressive impact craters on Earth

Under assumptions of scientists, on the surface of the Earth falls about 500 meteorites per year, but only 5 or 6 of them are large enough to be able to detect with radar weather radar. Major collision, leaving noticeable impact craters - fortunately, extremely rare events that occur, on average, at an interval of a thousand years.

For example, stony asteroids with a diameter of 100 meters fall to Earth on average once every 5200 years. As a result of this fall can be formed crater 1, 2 kilometers, by selecting the energy equivalent of 3, 8 megatons of TNT or nearly 1,000 times more powerful than the total energy of nuclear explosions and Nagasaki Hiroshima.

Larger asteroid 1km in diameter occur much less frequently (once every 500,000 years), and the collision of the Earth from space with a diameter of 5 km - time in 20 million years. As a result of last known size falling 10 kms celestial body killed dinosaurs; it happened 66 million years ago.

To date, there are 188 planet's proven impact craters, but most of them subtle. Only some of them have escaped erosion and weathering, or have the typical features of which are the result of a collision of a large meteorite to the Earth. Today you will learn about the 15 impact craters, which are a stunner!

Arizona Meteor Crater or Barringer Crater

Barringer Crater, located near the town of Winslow in the northern Arizona desert (USA), is not only one of the most beautiful but also one of the best preserved craters on Earth.

The opening of this crater was the starting point in geology. Before Daniel Barringer (Daniel Barringer) finally proved that the crater formed by the impact of a meteorite with the Earth and is not volcanic, geologists did not believe that meteorites may play a role in the Earth's geology. Even the craters on the Moon attributed volcanic origin. Since then, as the Barringer made this discovery, numerous impact craters have been found all over the planet.

Arizona meteorite crater diameter is 1, 2 km, and its depth - 229 meters. The edges of the crater rises above the surrounding plain to 46 meters. The crater was formed 50,000 years ago by the meteorite diameter of 50 m and a weight of 300,000 tons.

Crater Pingalut (Pingualuit Crater)

Crater Pingalut located in Quebec, Canada. Its diameter is 3, 44 km, and, on the assumptions scientists, it has been formed about 1, 4 Ma.

The crater is 400 meters deep rises above the surrounding tundra in the 160 meters. At 267 meters deep crater filled with water, forming one of the deepest lakes in North America. The lake is also considered one of the cleanest in the world, through the transparent waters of which can be seen from 35 meters.

Impact craters Wolfe Creek

This well-preserved impact crater located on the plains of the north-eastern part of the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia, approximately 150 kilometers south of the town of Halls Creek (Halls Creek).

It measures about 880 meters in diameter, preferably flat bottom at a depth of 55 meters below the crater edge and almost 25 meters below the sandy plains surrounding it.

In the center of the crater grow surprisingly large trees, which feed on the moisture of the water reserves of the crater left after the summer rains. The crater was formed 300,000 years ago.

Crater d'Amgid (Amguid Crater)

This crater is located in a remote and inaccessible area in the south-western Algeria. Almost 500 meters in diameter and 65 meters deep, the crater is partially filled with sand, wrought by the wind, so to measure its actual depth is not possible. The flat central part of the crater is covered by aeolian deposits that refract light, so from space crater appears white.

According to experts, d'Amgid crater may have formed less than 100,000 years ago, but in any case, it is more than 10,000 years.

Aorounga (Aorounga Crater) Meteor Crater

Crater Aorounga located in the Sahara desert in the north central part of Chad, in another well-preserved crater. Meteor Crater is surrounded by concentric circles, which, according to scientists, are the result of three consecutive hits of a large meteorite that split into pieces before the collision with the Earth. Impact event is believed to have occurred 345 million years ago.

Lonar Crater (Lonar Crater)

Lonar Crater is located in a small village Lonar in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The crater was formed approximately 52,000 years ago, after the fall of the gigantic meteorite or comet piece, whereby crater width of 1, 8 km and a depth of 150 m. With time, not intermittent streams summer crater filled with water, turning it to the lake.

Crater Gosses Bluff crater (Gosse's Bluff)

The impact crater is located in the south of the Northern Territory, near the center of Australia, approximately 175 kilometers west of Alice Springs.

The crater is supposed to be formed as a result of the fall of an asteroid or comet that occurred approximately 142 million years ago. Initially, the edge of the crater was 22 km wide, but was washed away by erosion. Structure 180 m in height and a diameter of 5 km, seen now, is eroded residues central crater.

Crater Tenaumer (Tenoumer Crater)

This crater is located in Mauritania, in the western part of the Sahara desert. It's almost perfect ring diameter of 1, 9 km, the edge of which rises to a height of 100 m. The age of the crater Tenaumer, according to estimates, is 10-30 thousand years.

Crater Tsvaing (Tswaing Crater)

Crater Tsvaing is in South Africa, 40 kilometers north-west of Pretoria. The estimated age funnel diameter of 1, 13 km depth of 100 meters is 220,000 ± 52,000 years.

Surface sources, groundwater, rainwater filled crater, turning it into a lake has a very high carbonate and sodium chloride (common salt) which were collected from 1956 year.

Crater Roter Kamm (Roter Kamm)

Crater Roter Kamm (translated from German "Red Range") - a crater with a diameter of 2, 5 km and a depth of 130 meters, which is situated in the Namib Desert. Its bottom 100m covered with sand, so crater appears as a narrow cavity. Roter Kamm was formed 4-5 million years ago.

Manicouagan Crater (Manicouagan crater)

Manicouagan Crater, located in the Province of Quebec, Canada, is one of the oldest known impact crater and the largest "visible" impact craters on Earth.

The crater was formed by a meteorite hitting the Earth with a diameter of 5 km about 215, 5 million years ago.

The crater has a multi-ring structure about 100 km wide. The inner ring diameter of 70 km is now Manicouagan lake.

Crater Shoemaker (Shoemaker Crater)

Shoemaker crater is located in the arid central part of Western Australia, approximately 100 kilometers north-east of Wiluna (Wiluna).

The crater is an annular geological structure 12 km in diameter, the central part of which it consists of a raised Archaean granite. Its edges are surrounded by a ring of sedimentary rocks with a diameter of almost 30 km. The age of the crater, according to scientists, can be about 1.63 billion years.

Lakes Clearwater (Clearwater Lakes)

Clearwater Lakes - two ring-shaped lake located in Quebec, Canada, near Hudson Bay, located within the cavities of the two eroded impact craters.

The diameter of the eastern crater is 26 km and the west - 36 km. Initially it was believed that the two craters were formed at the same time, the double impact event, but repeated studies of molten rock from the two impact craters suggests that the eastern crater was formed 460-470 million years ago, and the western - 286 million years ago .

Impact craters Kaali (Kaali Crater)

Kaali meteorite crater Kaali is in the village on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. This is one of the youngest of impact craters on the planet, which was formed just 7600 years ago.

Meteor crater, disintegrated during entry into the atmosphere, leaving a crater in area 9, which is known as impact craters Kaali field.

The largest of these craters having a diameter of 110 m and a depth of 22 m. Other pieces meteorite craters formed smaller diameters of 12 to 40 meters.

Kamil Crater (Kamil Crater)

This is another young crater. Located in the Egyptian desert, it was opened only in 2008 with the help of Google Earth. Crater 44, 8 m and a depth of about 16 m was created solid iron meteorite width of 1, 22 m weighing 5-10 thousand kilograms, falling about 5,000 years ago.

A feature that makes this crater is unique, lies in its beam structure that is visible around the crater. It ezhektita rays (material ejected from the impact crater) formed during the explosion of a meteorite that left a kind of surge. Such rays are characteristic of the moon or planets with a thin atmosphere - they are extremely rare in the Earth, as erosion and other geological processes quickly destroyed to such evidence. Maybe Kamil crater - the only one on the planet crater having ezhektita rays.

+ bonus

Bosumtvi Lake (Lake Bosumtwi)

Bosumtvi Lake is located in an ancient meteorite crater width of 10, 5 km, is derived from the impact 1, 07 million years ago.

In itself, the lake a little smaller, about 8 km wide, it is the only natural lake in the Ashanti and Ghana.

Now it is a popular resort area. Near the crater lake is located about 30 villages with a total of about 70,000 people.