Largest Impact Crater on Planet Earth

The asteroid that hit Vredefort located in the Free State Province of South Africa is one of the largest to ever impact Earth, estimated at over 10 km (6 miles) wide, although it is believed by many that the original size of the impact structure could have been 250 km in diameter, or possibly larger(though the Wilkes Land crater in Antarctica, if confirmed to have been the result of an impact event, is even larger at 500 kilometers across). The town of Vredefort is situated in the crater. Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme found on earth so far, with a radius of 190km, it is also the most deeply eroded. Vredefort Dome bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which caused devastating global change, including, according to many scientists, major evolutionary changes. Tomorrow I'll be posting an impact-crater map of the planet (it's scary!). Original posting by Casey Kazan.

See also Deep Impact -A Video

Comments

[Andrew]

Here's a little oddity about the location of this crater. If you drilled a hole to the other side of the Earth, guess where you'd wind up?

Right in the middle of the Ring of Fire in the Pacific. Coincidence? Maybe but it still seems odd to me!

Odd, and cool! Be sure to checkout our post tomorrow on the Asteroid Impact Map of the Planet...scary stuff: Past is Future! Casey.

[Ed Minchau]

Although a crater rim 190km across is big, that isn't the biggest impact crater on the earth. Hudson Bay is about 6 times that wide.