Meteoroids, meteors, meteorites: What is the science behind impact crater formation?

Impact craters are scattered across Earth’s surface, but meteoroids first face the challenge of passing through Earth’s atmosphere, producing impressive shooting stars (meteors) before they even come close to reaching the ground. Not all meteorite impacts leave a scar on the planet, but those that do can be powerful enough to cause mass extinctions. Yet from destruction, life can blossom, with these hotspots of evolution also housing huge economic metal deposits to help society prosper.
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[barrybarlowe]

Just looking at the map, I notice two things about the "known" craters:

1. They are either in populated areas, or,

2. The are in areas with little ground cover.

What you see is a map of craters people have tripped over. It is not representative of the craters that exist. If our planet's surface were bare like the moon, we'd probably be as pick-marked.