The ancient Chicxulub meteorite crater was discovered by accident in 1978 during a geophysical expedition organized by Pemex (Petroleum Mexican) to search for oil deposits at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Geophysicists Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield first discovered an incredibly symmetrical 70-kilometer underwater arc, then examined the gravitational map of the area and found a continuation of the arc on land - near the village of Chicxulub ("tick demon" in the Mayan language) in the northwestern part of the peninsula. Having closed, these arcs formed a circle with a diameter of about 180 km. Penfield immediately put forward a hypothesis about the impact origin of this unique geological structure: this idea was suggested by a gravitational anomaly inside the crater, samples of “impact quartz” with a compressed molecular structure and glassy tektites that he discovered, which are formed only at extreme temperatures and pressures. To scientifically prove that a meteorite with a diameter of at least 10 km fell in this place was succeeded by Alan Hildebrant, professor of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Calgary, in 1980.
In parallel, the issue of the alleged fall of a giant meteorite to Earth at the border of the Cretaceous and Paleozoic (about 65 million years ago) was dealt with by Nobel laureate in physics Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez from the University of California, who, due to the presence of an abnormally high content of iridium in the soil layer of that period ( extraterrestrial origin) suggested that the fall of such a meteorite could cause the extinction of dinosaurs. This version is not generally accepted, but is considered quite probable. In that rich natural disasters During the period, the Earth was subjected to a series of meteorite falls (including the meteorite that left the 24-kilometer Boltysh crater in Ukraine), but Chicxulub seemed to surpass all others in scale and consequences. The fall of the Chicxulub meteorite affected the life of the Earth more seriously than any of the strongest volcanic eruptions known today. The destructive force of his strike was millions of times greater than the force of the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima. A column of dust, fragments of rock, soot shot up into the sky (forests burned), hiding the sun for a long time; the shock wave went around the planet several times, causing a series of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and a tsunami 50-100 m high. Nuclear winter with acid rain, which was fatal for almost half of the species diversity, lasted several years ... Before this global catastrophe, dinosaurs, marine plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs reigned on our planet and flying pterosaurs, and after - not immediately, but in a short time, almost all of them died out (Cretaceous-Paleogene crisis), freeing up an ecological niche for mammals and birds.
Until the discovery of 1978, the neighborhood of the Mexican village of Chicxulub in the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula was famous only for the abundance of ticks. The fact that it is here that a 180-kilometer meteorite crater lies half on land, half under the water of the bay is completely impossible to determine by eye. Nevertheless, the results of chemical analyzes of the soil under the strata of sedimentary rocks, the gravitational anomaly of the place and detailed shooting from space leave no doubt: a huge meteorite fell here.
Now the Chicxulub crater literally from all sides, that is, from above - from space, and from below - by the method of deep drilling, scientists are intensively exploring.
On a gravity map, the Chicxulub meteorite impact zone looks like two yellow-red rings on a blue-green background. On such maps, the gradation from cold to warm colors means an increase in the force of gravity: green and blue show areas with reduced gravity, yellow and red - areas with increased gravity. The smaller ring is the epicenter of the impact, which fell on the vicinity of the current village of Chicxulub, and the larger ring, covering not only the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula, but also the bottom within a radius of 90 km, is the edge of the meteorite crater. It is noteworthy that the strip of cenotes (karst sinkholes with underground freshwater lakes) in the northwest of Yucatan practically coincides with the focus of the explosion, with the largest accumulation in the eastern part of the circle and individual cenotes outside. Geologically, this can be explained by the filling of the funnel with limestone deposits up to a kilometer thick. The processes of destruction and erosion of limestone rocks caused the formation of voids and wells, drains with fresh underground lakes at the bottom. The cenotes outside the ring probably originated at the impact site of meteorite fragments thrown out of the crater by an explosion during the fall. Cenotes (apart from rains, this is the only source of drinking water on the peninsula, so Maya-Toltec cities later grew up near them) are conventionally marked with white dots on the gravity map. But there were no more white spots on the map of Yucatan: in 2003, the results of a space survey of the crater surface, made by the Endeavor shuttle back in February 2000, were published (American cosmonauts were interested not only in Yucatan: in addition to the volume during the 11-day NASA topographic radar mission, 80% of the earth's surface was surveyed).
In the pictures taken from space, the border of the Chicxulub crater is in full view. To do this, the images were subjected to special computer processing, which "cleaned" the surface layers of sediments. The space imagery even shows a trace of a fall in the form of a “tail”, according to which it was determined that the meteorite approached the Earth at a small angle from the southeast, moving at a speed of approximately 30 km / s. At a distance of up to 150 km from the epicenter, secondary craters are visible. Probably, immediately after the fall of the meteorite, a ring-shaped ridge several kilometers high rose up around the main crater, but the ridge quickly collapsed, causing strong earthquakes, and this led to the formation of secondary craters.
In addition to space exploration, scientists have begun deep exploration of the Chiksulub crater: it is planned to drill three wells with a depth of 700 m to 1.5 km. This will restore the original geometry of the funnel, and chemical analysis rock samples taken at a depth of wells will allow us to determine the scale of that distant environmental catastrophe.
general information
Ancient meteorite crater.Location: in the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula and at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
date of the meteorite fall: 65 million years ago.
Administrative affiliation of the crater: State of Yucatan, Mexico.
largest locality inside the crater: state capital city - 1,955,577 people (2010).
Languages: Spanish (official), Mayan (Mayan language).
Ethnic composition: Maya Indians and mestizos.
Religion: Catholicism (majority).
Currency unit: Mexican peso.
Water sources: natural cenote wells (water from an underground karst lake).
Nearest airport: Manuel Cressensio Rejon International Airport, Merida.
Numbers
Crater diameter: 180 km.meteorite diameter: 10-11 km.
Depth of the crater: not exactly determined, presumably up to 16 km.
Impact energy: 5 × 10 23 joules or 100 teraton of TNT.
Tsunami wave height(estimated): 50-100 m.
Climate and weather
Tropical.Dry, very hot, woodlands and xerophytic shrubs predominate.
January average temperature: +23°С.
July average temperature: +28°С.
Average annual rainfall: 1500-1800 mm.
Economy
Industry: timber (cedar), food, tobacco, textile.Agriculture: farms grow agave heneken, corn, citrus fruits and other fruits and vegetables; Breeding cattle; beekeeping.
Fishing.
Service sector: financial, trade, tourism.
Attractions
■ Natural: cenote zone.■ Cultural and historical: the ruins of the Mayan-Toltec cities in the cenote zone: Mayapan, Uxmal, Itzmal, etc. (Merida - modern city on the ruins of the ancient).
Curious facts
■ Near the cenotes, the ancient cities of the Maya and the Toltecs who conquered them were built. It is known that some of these cenotes (the most important - in Chichen Itza) were sacred for the Maya-Toltec civilization. Through the "eye of God" Indian priests communicated with the gods, and human sacrifices were thrown into it.■ Even before the discovery of the Chicxulub meteorite crater in the scientific community of the late 1970s, the theory of an extraterrestrial (meteoritic) origin of the Cretaceous-Paleogene crisis, which led to the death of dinosaurs, was maturing. So, the father and son of Alvarez (a physicist and geologist), sequentially analyzing the composition of the soil in an archaeological section taken in Mexico, found in a clay layer aged 65 million years an anomalously increased (15 times) concentration of iridium - a rare element for the Earth, typical for a certain species asteroids. After the discovery of the Chicxulub crater, it would seem that their guesses were confirmed. However, similar studies of soil sections in Italy, Denmark, and New Zealand showed that in the layer of the same age, the concentration of iridium also exceeds the nominal value - 30, 160, and 20 times, respectively! This proves that there may have been a meteor shower over the Earth during that period.
■ In the first week after the fall of the meteorite, scientists believe that the fewest and most vulnerable species, already endangered, became extinct - the last of the giant sauropods and top predators. Due to acid rain and lack of light, some plant species began to die out, the rest slowed down the process of photosynthesis, as a result, there was not enough oxygen and a second wave of extinction began ... It took thousands of years for the ecological balance to be restored.
We all know that our Earth has been influenced from outer space. On its surface, scientists have identified more than 170 craters, which were formed as a result of falling on earth's surface meteorites.
We offer you to familiarize yourself with photos of several of the largest meteorite craters. "Messengers from outer space" to some extent had positive influence to our planet. At the site of the fall of some large asteroids, magnificent lakes were formed.
Barringer Crater, Arizona, USA
This crater is also called "Devil's Canyon". About 49,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickel meteorite 150 feet across, weighing several hundred thousand tons, moving at a speed of 40,000 km per hour, fell on our planet. As a result, a huge crater with a diameter of 1.2 km was formed. This crater is considered one of the best preserved.
Bosumtwi, Ghana
Due to a collision with a huge meteorite with a diameter of half a kilometer, about 1.3 million years ago, Bosumtwi Lake was formed with an almost perfect shape. The diameter of this lake is about 10 km. The study of this lake is further complicated by the fact that a dense forest has grown around it. The local Ashanti people consider the lake a shrine. This crater is also considered to be well preserved.
Deep Bay, Canada
This crater is located in Saskatchewan. Its diameter is 13 km and its depth is 220 meters. A shallow lake formed at the site of the crater. The age of the crater is about 99 million years.
This crater with a diameter of 17 kilometers is located in Chad (Sahara desert, Africa). The age of the crater is approximately 345 million years. It was formed due to the fall of a meteorite 1.7 km in diameter.
This crater is 142 million years old. Its diameter is 22 kilometers. It is located in the center of Australia. This crater looks amazing. Gossess Bluff was formed due to the fall of a huge meteorite that crashed into the earth's surface at a speed of 65,000 km per hour. The depth of the funnel, which he created, was 5 km.
As a result of the collision of this meteorite 38 million years ago, Lake Mistatin was created, which is located in the Canadian province of Labrador. The dimensions of the crater are 11 by 17 km. However, it is assumed that it was originally larger, but decreased due to erosion. The uniqueness of the crater is that it is in the shape of an ellipse. This indicates that the asteroid did not fall smoothly, but at an acute angle.
Clearwater, Canada
Here is a unique case. 290 million years ago, a huge asteroid entering the atmosphere the globe Before falling, it was divided into 2 parts. As a result, two craters formed at once. One of the lakes is 36 km in diameter, and the other is 26 km. And initially they were even more.
Kara-Kul, Tajikistan
This crater is located in the northern part of the Pamirs at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters. A magnificent lake 24 by 33 kilometers in size was formed here. The age of the crater is about 5,000,000 years.
Manicouagan, Canada
At the site of the fall of a huge 5-kilometer meteorite that fell 212 million years ago, there is a reservoir known as the "Eye of Quebec". The area of the crater is 100 kilometers. The singularity of the crater is that it was not filled with water in a natural way, although a water ring formed around it.
Chicxulub Crater, Mexico
Some scientists believe that dinosaurs could have become extinct 65 million years ago as a result of the fall of this asteroid. This is considered the most powerful collision in the history of our planet. The energy of a huge city-sized asteroid was about 1 billion kilotons. Due to the fall of the meteorite, a crater 168 kilometers in size was formed. In addition, he called powerful earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
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About the fact that during the fall of meteorites on the planet, radial craters often appear, resembling circles diverging in water. Scientists today released the results of the first drilling expedition to Chicxulub, an ancient impact crater in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. It is believed that this crater was formed by the fall of a huge meteorite, which led to irreversible climatic changes that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
The discovery of researchers confirmed that granite boulders from the bowels earth's crust and indeed are on top of sedimentary rocks, which means that the hypothesis of the formation of radial craters has finally been confirmed. And even though Chicxulub is the only crater of this type that has survived today, there are a lot of them on other planets of the solar system. For example, last month NASA scientists, with help, suggested that peak rings within the Moon's Oriental impact basin likely formed in the same way.
A team of researchers went deep into the earth's interior to explore the epicenter of one of the world's most significant cataclysms. To get to the heart of the crater, the scientists had to delve 670 meters into the rock under the sea floor, for which the team brought in a drilling platform. Samples at this depth contain fragments of the same bedrock granitic rocks that were erupted from the Earth by the impact of a huge asteroid. Before diving deep into the sea, they have already tested the technology of drilling on land. But this is the first time that researchers have dived inside the so-called "peak ring" - a radial stone ridge inside the impact crater itself. Similar craters have been discovered on the Moon, Mars and even Mercury, but this is the first time such studies have been carried out on Earth.
A close examination of the peak ring rocks will allow scientists to test the model of crater formation and determine whether the site was one of the first places where microscopic fauna appeared after the impact. The peak ring itself is formed in just a few minutes. Immediately after the impact, the molten mantle rises to a height of about 10 km, and then collapses down, forming the same radial ridge. You can observe something similar if you throw a large boulder into the water. After that, the rocks cool down and a peak ring is formed, consisting of pieces of root rock. And in the following hours, the oceanic tsunami brings masses of bottom sand into the huge crater, after which lime deposits begin, which last for millions of years.
You can read a full story about how the excavations took place and what unique finds the scientists discovered in the process of work, you can read on the portal of the journal
Many of us have heard of the Tunguska meteorite. At the same time, few people know about his brother, who fell to Earth in time immemorial. Chicxulub is a crater formed after a meteorite fell 65 million years ago. Its appearance on Earth led to serious consequences that affected the entire planet as a whole.
Where is Chicxulub crater located?
It is located in the northwestern region of the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. With a diameter of 180 km, the Chicxulub crater claims to be the largest meteorite crater on Earth. Part of it is on land, and the second part is under the waters of the bay.
Discovery history
The discovery of the crater was accidental. Since it has a huge size, they did not even know about its existence. Scientists discovered it quite by accident in 1978 during geophysical surveys of the Gulf of Mexico. The research expedition was organized by Pemex (full name Petroleum Mexican). She faced a difficult task - to find oil deposits at the bottom of the bay. Geophysicists Glen Penfield and Antonio Camargo, during their research, first discovered a stunningly symmetrical seventy-kilometer arc under water. Thanks to the gravitational map, scientists have found a continuation of this arc on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) near the village of Chicxulub.
The name of the village is translated from the Mayan language as "tick demon". This name is associated with an unprecedented number of insects in this region since ancient times. It was the consideration on the map (gravitational) that made it possible to make many assumptions.
Scientific substantiation of the hypothesis
Having closed, the found arcs form a circle, the diameter of which is 180 kilometers. One of the researchers named Penfield immediately suggested that this was an impact crater that appeared as a result of a meteorite fall.
His theory turned out to be correct, which was confirmed by some facts. It was found inside the crater. In addition, scientists have found samples of "shock quartz" with a compressed molecular structure, as well as glassy tektites. Such substances can be formed only at extreme pressure and temperature values. The fact that Chicksculub is a crater that has no equal on Earth was no longer in doubt, but irrefutable evidence was needed to confirm the assumptions. And they were found.
In 1980, the professor of the department of the University of Calgary, Hildebrant, managed to scientifically confirm the hypothesis thanks to the study chemical composition terrain rocks and detailed satellite imagery of the peninsula.
Consequences of a meteorite fall
It is believed that Chicxulub is a crater formed by the fall of a meteorite, the diameter of which is at least ten kilometers. Scientists' calculations show that the meteorite was moving at a slight angle from the southeast. Its speed was 30 kilometers per second.
The fall of a huge cosmic body to Earth occurred about 65 million years ago. Scientists suggest that this event happened just at the turn of the Paleogonian and the Cretaceous period. The consequences of the impact were catastrophic and had a huge impact on the further development of life on Earth. As a result of the collision of a meteorite with the earth's surface, the largest crater on Earth was formed.
According to scientists, the power of the impact exceeded several million times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. As a result of the impact, the largest crater on Earth was formed, surrounded by a ridge, the height of which was several thousand meters. But soon the ridge collapsed due to earthquakes and other geological transformations provoked by a meteorite impact. According to scientists, a tsunami began from a powerful blow. Presumably the height of their waves was 50-100 meters. The waves went to the continents, destroying everything in their path.
Global cooling on the planet
The shock wave went around the entire Earth several times. With its high temperature, it caused the strongest forest fires. Volcanism and other tectonic processes have intensified in different regions of the planet. Numerous volcanic eruptions and the burning of large forest areas have led to the fact that a huge amount of gases, dust, ash and soot have entered the atmosphere. It is difficult to imagine it, but the particles raised caused the process volcanic winter. It lies in the fact that most of the solar energy is reflected by the atmosphere, resulting in global cooling.
Such climatic changes, along with other severe consequences of the impact, had a detrimental effect on the living world of the planet. Plants did not have enough light for photosynthesis, which led to a decrease in oxygen in the atmosphere. The disappearance of a huge part of the Earth's vegetation led to the death of animals that lacked food. It was these events that led to the complete extinction of the dinosaurs.
Extinction at the border of the Cretaceous and Paleogene period
The fall of a meteorite is currently considered the most convincing reason for the mass death of all life. The version of the extinction of living beings took place even before the Chicxulub (crater) was discovered. And one could only guess about the reasons that caused the cooling of the climate.
Scientists have found a high content of iridium (a very rare element) in sediments that are about 65 million years old. An interesting fact is that a high concentration of the element was found not only in the Yucatan, but also in other places on the planet. Therefore, experts say that, most likely, there was a meteor shower.
On the border of the Paleogene and Cretaceous, all dinosaurs, marine reptiles, which reigned in this period for a long time, died out. All ecosystems were completely destroyed. In the absence of large pangolins, the evolution of birds and mammals accelerated, the species diversity of which increased significantly.
According to scientists, it can be assumed that other mass extinctions were triggered by the fall of large meteorites. Available calculations allow us to say that large cosmic bodies fall to the Earth once every hundred million years. And this roughly corresponds to the length of time between mass extinctions.
What happened after the meteorite fell?
What happened on Earth after the meteorite fell? According to paleontologist Daniel Durd (Colorado Research Institute), in minutes and hours, the lush and flourishing world of the planet turned into a devastated land. Thousands of kilometers from the place where the meteorite fell, everything was completely destroyed. The impact claimed the lives of more than three-quarters of all living things and plants on Earth. It was the dinosaurs that suffered the most, they all died out.
For a long time, people did not even know about the existence of the crater. But after it was found, it became necessary to study it, since scientists have accumulated many hypotheses that need to be verified, questions and assumptions. If you look at the Yucatan Peninsula on a map, it's hard to imagine actual dimensions crater in the area. Its northern part is far from the coast and is covered with 600 meters of ocean sediments.
In 2016, scientists began drilling in the area of the marine part of the crater in order to extract core samples. Analysis of the extracted samples will shed light on events that happened a long time ago.
Events that took place after the disaster
The fall of the asteroid evaporated a huge part of the earth's crust. Over the crash site, debris soared into the sky, fires and volcanic eruptions broke out on Earth. It was the soot and dust that blocked the sunlight and plunged the planet into a very long period of winter darkness.
Over the following months, dust and debris fell to the Earth's surface, covering the planet in a thick layer of asteroid dust. It is this layer that is for paleontologists evidence of a turning point in the history of the Earth.
In the North American region, before the meteorite impact, lush forests flourished with a dense undergrowth of ferns and flowers. The climate in those days was much warmer than today. There was no snow at the poles, and dinosaurs roamed not only in Alaska, but also in the Seymour Islands.
Scientists studied the consequences of a meteorite impact on the ground by analyzing the Cretaceous-Paleogene layer found in more than 300 places around the world. This gave reason to say that all living things died near the epicenter of events. The opposite part of the planet suffered from earthquakes, tsunamis, lack of light and other consequences of the disaster.
Those living beings that did not die immediately, died from lack of water and food, destroyed by acid rain. The death of vegetation led to the death of herbivores, from which carnivores also suffered, left without food. Every link in the chain has been broken.
New assumptions of scientists
According to scientists who studied fossils, only the smallest creatures (like raccoons, for example) could survive on Earth. It was they who had a chance to survive in those conditions. Because they eat less, they reproduce faster and adapt more easily.
Fossils say that in Europe and North America there was a more favorable situation after the disaster than in other places. Mass extinction is a dual process. If something has died on one side, something has to arise on the other side. Scientists think so.
The restoration of the Earth took a very long time. Hundreds, if not thousands of years passed before ecosystems were restored. The oceans are thought to have taken three million years to recover. normal life organisms.
After strong fires, ferns settled in the ground, quickly populating the burnt regions. Those ecosystems that escaped the fire were inhabited by mosses and algae. The areas least affected by the destruction became places where some species of living creatures could survive. Later they spread all over the planet. So, for example, sharks, some fish, crocodiles survived in the oceans.
The complete extinction of the dinosaurs opened up new ecological niches for other creatures to fill. Subsequently, the migration of mammals to vacant places led to their modern abundance on the planet.
New information about the past of the planet
Drilling the world's largest crater, located in the Yucatan Peninsula, and taking more and more samples will allow scientists to get more data on how the crater was formed and on the consequences of the fall on the formation of new climatic conditions. Samples taken from the inside of the crater will allow experts to understand what happened to the Earth after the strongest impact and how life was restored in the future. Scientists are interested in understanding how the restoration took place and who returned first, how quickly the evolutionary diversity of forms appeared.
Despite the fact that certain species and organisms died, other forms of life began to flourish doubly. According to scientists, such a picture of a disaster on the planet could be repeated many times over the entire history of the Earth. And each time, all living things perished, and in the future, recovery processes took place. It is likely that the course of history and development would have been different if the asteroid had not fallen on the planet 65 million years ago. Experts also do not exclude the possibility that life on the planet was born due to the fall of large asteroids.
Instead of an afterword
The fall of the asteroid caused the strongest hydrothermal activity of the Chicxulub crater, which most likely lasted 100,000 years. She could enable hypermatophiles and thermophiles (these are exotic single-celled organisms) to thrive in hot environments by settling inside the crater. This hypothesis of scientists, of course, needs to be tested. It is rock drilling that can help shed light on many events. Therefore, scientists still have many questions that need to be answered by studying Chicxulub (crater).
Our beloved blue planet is constantly being hit by space debris, but due to the fact that most space objects burn up or fall apart in the atmosphere, this most often does not pose any serious problems. Even if some object reaches the surface of the planet, it is most often small, and the damage it causes is negligible.
However, of course, there are very rare cases when something very large flies through the atmosphere and in this case very significant damage is inflicted. Fortunately, such falls are extremely rare, but it is worth knowing about them at least in order to remember that there are forces in the Universe that can disrupt the everyday life of people in a couple of minutes. Where and when did these monsters fall to Earth? Let's turn to the geological records and find out:
10. Barringer Crater, Arizona, USA
Arizona apparently lacked the fact that they had the Grand Canyon, so about 50,000 years ago, another tourist attraction was added there when a 50-meter meteorite landed in the northern desert, which left behind a crater 1200 meters in diameter and deep at 180 meters. Scientists believe that the meteorite, as a result of which the crater was formed, flew at a speed of about 55 thousand kilometers per hour, and caused an explosion more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, about 150 times. Some scientists initially doubted that the crater was formed by a meteorite, since the meteorite itself is not there, however, according to modern ideas scientists, the stone simply melted during the explosion, spreading molten nickel and iron around the surrounding area.
Although its diameter is not that big, the lack of erosion makes it an impressive sight. What's more, it's one of the few meteorite craters that looks true to its origin, making it a top-notch tourist destination, just the way the universe wanted it to be.
9. Lake Bosumtwi Crater, Ghana 
When someone discovers a natural lake that is almost perfectly round, it's suspicious enough. That is what Lake Bosumtwi is, reaching about 10 kilometers in diameter, and located 30 kilometers southeast of Kumasi, Ghana. The crater was formed from a collision with a meteorite with a diameter of about 500 meters, which fell to Earth about 1.3 million years ago. Attempts to study the crater in detail are quite difficult, as the lake is difficult to reach, it is surrounded by dense forest, and the local Ashanti people consider it a holy place (they believe that it is forbidden to touch the water with iron or use metal boats, which is why getting to nickel at the bottom of the lake is problematic). And yet, this is one of the best preserved craters on the planet on this moment, and good example destructive power of megastones from space.
8. Mistastin Lake, Labrador, Canada 
The Mistatin Impact Crater, located in Canada's Labrador Province, is an impressive 17-by-11-kilometer depression in the earth that formed about 38 million years ago. The crater was likely originally much larger, but has shrunk over time due to the erosion it has undergone due to the many glaciers that have passed through Canada over the past million years. This crater is unique in that, unlike most impact craters, it is elliptical rather than round, indicating that the meteorite hit at an acute angle, rather than level like most meteorite impacts. Even more unusual is the fact that there is a small island in the middle of the lake, which may be the central rise of the complex structure of the crater.
7. Gosses Bluff, Northern Territory, Australia
This 142 million year old and 22 km diameter crater located in the center of Australia is an impressive sight both from the air and from the ground. The crater was formed as a result of the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 22 kilometers, which crashed into the Earth's surface at a speed of 65,000 kilometers per hour and formed a funnel almost 5 kilometers deep. The collision energy was about 10 to the twentieth power of Joules, so life on the continent faced great problems after this collision. The highly deformed crater is one of the most significant impact craters in the world and does not let us forget the power of a single large rock.
6. Clearwater Lakes, Quebec, Canada 
Finding one impact crater is cool, but finding two impact craters next to each other is doubly cool. This is exactly what happened when the asteroid broke in two as it entered earth's atmosphere 290 million years ago, which resulted in the formation of two impact craters on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Since then, erosion and glaciers have severely destroyed the original craters, but what remains is still an impressive sight. The diameter of one lake is 36 kilometers, and the second is about 26 kilometers. Given that the craters formed 290 million years ago and were heavily eroded, one can only imagine how large they were originally.
5. Tunguska meteorite, Siberia, Russia
This is a controversial point, since no parts of the hypothetical meteorite remained, and what exactly fell into Siberia 105 years ago is not entirely clear. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that something large and moving at high speed exploded near the Tunguska River in June 1908, leaving behind fallen trees over an area of 2000 square kilometers. The explosion was so strong that it was recorded by instruments even in the UK.
Due to the fact that no pieces of the meteorite were found, some believe that the object may not have been a meteorite at all, but a small part of a comet (which, if true, explains the absence of meteorite fragments). Conspiracy lovers believe that an alien actually exploded here spaceship. Although this theory is completely unfounded and is pure speculation, we have to admit that it sounds interesting.
4. Manicouagan Crater, Canada 
The Manicouagan Reservoir, also known as the Eye of Quebec, is located in a crater formed 212 million years ago when an asteroid 5 kilometers in diameter hit Earth. The 100-kilometer crater that was left after the fall was destroyed by glaciers and other erosive processes, but even at the moment it remains an impressive sight. What is unique about this crater is that nature did not fill it with water, forming an almost perfectly round lake - the crater basically remained land surrounded by a ring of water. A great place to build a castle here.
3. Sudbury Basin, Ontario, Canada 
Apparently, Canada and impact craters are very fond of each other. Singer Alanis Morrisette's hometown is a favorite place for meteorite impacts - the largest meteorite impact crater in Canada is located near Sudbury, Ontario. This crater is already 1.85 billion years old, and its dimensions are 65 kilometers long, 25 wide and 14 deep - 162 thousand people live here, and many mining enterprises are located, who discovered a century ago that the crater is very rich in nickel due to for the fallen asteroid. The crater is so rich in this element that about 10% of the world's nickel production is obtained here.
2. Chicxulub Crater, Mexico
Perhaps the fall of this meteorite caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, but this is definitely the most powerful collision with an asteroid in the entire history of the Earth. The impact occurred about 65 million years ago when an asteroid the size of a small city crashed into Earth with an energy of 100 teratonnes of TNT. For those who like hard data, that's roughly 1 billion kilotons. Compare this energy with the 20 kiloton atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the impact of this collision becomes clearer.
The collision not only created a crater 168 kilometers in diameter, but also caused megatsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions all over the Earth, which greatly changed environment and sentenced dinosaurs to death (and apparently many other creatures). This vast crater, located on the Yucatan Peninsula near the village of Chicxulub (after which the crater was named), can only be seen from space, which is why scientists discovered it relatively recently.
1. Vredefort Dome Crater, South Africa
Although the Chicxulub crater is better known, compared to the 300 kilometers wide Vredefort crater in the Republic of South Africa, it is a common pothole. Vredefort is currently the largest impact crater on Earth. Fortunately, the meteorite / asteroid that fell 2 billion years ago (its diameter was about 10 kilometers) did not cause significant harm to life on Earth, since at that time there was no multicellular organisms. The collision no doubt greatly changed the climate of the Earth, but there was no one to notice it.
At the moment, the original crater is heavily eroded, but from space, its remnants look impressive and are a great visual example of how scary the universe can be.