200 Earth Impact Craters Mapped by Size and Age

Mapping all 200 impact craters of the Earth Impact Database, Planetary and Space Science Centre

Keywords: Geography Viz, World Geography, Earth Impact Craters, Crater Size Classes, Crater Ages, Earth Impact Database, Planetary and Space Science Centre, Impact Craters Map

0:00 Intro
0:19 Carancas Crater
0:31 Haviland Crater
0:48 Kaali Crater
1:17 Douglas Crater
1:45 Boxhole, Aouelloul, Amguid, Monturaqui and Wolfe Creek craters
2:20 Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater)
3:28 Rotor Kamm Crater
3:40 New Quebec Crater
3:50 Gow Crater
4:17 Tin Bider Crater
4:28 Piccaninny Crater
4:42 Couture Crater
4:57 Connolly Crater
5:26 Spatial distribution of earth impact craters
5:57 Upheaval Dome Crater
6:10 Bosumtwi Crater
6:20 Gosses Bluff Crater
6:30 Haughton Crater
6:43 Ries Crater
6:53 Slate Islands Crater
7:03 Clearwater West Crater
7:14 Mjølnir Crater
7:33 Kara-Kul Crater
7:44 Manicouagan Crater
8:12 Sudbury Basin Crater
8:38 Chicxulub Crater
9:16 Vredefort Crater
9:54 Earth impact craters map

References & Photo Credits:

Many Google Earth and NASA World Wind imagery screenshots

Veski S, Heinsalu A, Kirsimäe K, Poska A & Saarse L (2001) Ecological catastrophe in connection with the impact of the Kaali meteorite about 800–400 BC on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 36, 1367-1375.

Mö NA (2020) The Kaali impact as trigger of a mega-tsunami event and violent seismotectonics in Sweden. International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 10, 235-246.

Kenkmann T, Sundell KA. & Cook D (2018) Evidence for a large Paleozoic impact crater strewn field in the Rocky Mountains. Scientific reports, 8, 1-12.

Kring DA (2007) Guidebook to the geology of barringer meteorite crater, Arizona. Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Neville AS, Cook DJ, Afifi AM & Stewart SA (2014) Five buried crater structures imaged on reflection seismic data in Saudi Arabia. GeoArabia, 19, 17-44.

Haughton imagery is TanDEM-X elevation model provided to Earth Impact Database by Manfred Gottwald

Haughton shatter cone photo modified from Fig 2 of Osinski GR & Spray JG (2006) Shatter cones of the Haughton impact structure, Canada. In First International Conference on Impact Cratering in the Solar System.

Dressler BO, Sharpton VL & Copeland P (1999) Slate Islands, Lake Superior, Canada: A mid-size, complex impact structure (No. Special-Paper-339). Geological Society of America.

Allen NH, Nakajima M, Wünnemann K, Helhoski S & Trail D (2022) A revision of the formation conditions of the Vredefort crater. Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 127, e2022JE007186.

[metrx]

South African dude here. I was born inside that crater and my family still own farmland in it. It's way too big to even identify as a crater until you explore the mapping. Arguments have raged for several years now with people speculating that region of SA having had the worlds largest reserves of gold and platinum group metals due to the impact penetrating the crust so deeply and ejecting deep Earth material to the surface.

[bobbie]

As someone from Sudbury, one thing is i can assure that this town would not exist if that asteroid didn't hit, almost a complete mining economy here. Great vid!

[luckystriker]

South African here. My country rarely experience earthquakes, volcanos, tornados, tsunamis and other natural calamities - other than droughts and floods we are sitting pretty . Good to know we hold the record for the biggest meteor impact

[simonwinterstein]

6:46 hi there, it is important to say that the town shown (Nördlingen) is round because of the medieval town wall. Not because of the crater rim. The crater is 50 times bigger than that. Good video tho!

[gaius_enceladus]

Oh man - New Zealand gets left off the map *again!* :)

[kusaselihlengubane]

As a South African this makes me want to start digging up my backyard just incase I get lucky

[BrewsterMcBrewster]

In my elder years, this kind of thing becomes more and more interesting. Very nice presentation! Geology is a wonderful science. Keep up the good work!

[c.v.hansen]

Interesting video; but I noticed that there was only one described crater which is under water. I assume that a meteor which strikes our planet is just as likely to hit any given spot on the planet, whether is it covered by water or not, and since about 70% of our planet is covered by oceans (not to mention the ice sheets which still or once covered major areas), the number of major hits our planet has taken may be much greater than what the land-based craters indicate.

[rodevans]

Excellent compilation. The hard work is appreciated. Thank you!

[-FrodoBaggins-]

I love these super detailed videos on somewhate niche topics. Thanks for providing such a well explained video!

[christianhunt]

This was a really Informative video, you could explore more of these craters.

[Heavilymoderated]

I’ve been to Barringer Crater. They have a large piece of the iron meteor that created the crater inside of the viewing area. Worth the trip.

[joeelliott]

An extremely good video, presenting data in a well organized way. I like that only 'craters' that are well accepted by the scientific community are presented. A couple of interesting craters that I would have liked to see presented are:
1. The Chesapeake Bay impact helped form a bay that has been very important in American history.
2. The Cumberland Gap impact helped create the easiest path through the Appalachian Mountains, rediscovered by Danial Boone. This speeded up the Western Expansion of the settlers, getting them across the biggest physical mountain barrier to Western Expansion, greater than the Rocky Mountains, curiously enough. Another historically important impact.

[leskuzyk]

Awesome. From a Canadian who's looking at maps all the time. And the crater patterns on other planets and moons.

[saiko]

I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for putting forth so much effort on siting sources and explaining each crater. I will now watch your other vids....finally the algorithm suggests something worth watching!

[rwnelson]

Wonderful map & database view. Gene Shoemaker was a legend not only for his devotion to impact discoveries and analysis along with his wife but the famous discovery of Shoemaker - Levi Comet ; real-time observations of the impacts on Jupiter that really opened scientists eyes to the immense impact energy evolution in Jupiter"s atmosphere that dwarfed Earth's size and what these ancient impacts on Earth truly entailed and surely to happen again.
Thank You!!

[Left-Foot-Brake]

Great video mate - I was hooked all the way through.... and learnt many things!

[ttystikkrocks]

Very cool graphic that includes both size and time. Great explanation, too. Well done!

[Daneelro]

The city of Nördlingen's circular wall has nothing to do with the geological structures of the much larger Nördlinger Ries crater. In fact the city is not in the center but on the southwest of the crater basin.

[troycongdon]

Cool video, thanks for the work putting it together. The annular lake in Quebec has stood out when I explored google maps, it was unclear to me if it was a crater or just an extensive dam works that created it. It is on my bucket list to go see in person.