Space is an area, which is full of science fiction. Hundreds of books, movies and games are released every year showcasing aliens, U.F.O’s, meteoroids hitting earth and so on. But that not all of it is fiction! Millions of space debris hit earth’s surface every day. While most of them are dust particles, there are some instances when some of them have proven catastrophic in the past.
The aftermath of an asteroid explosion is destructive. This is true not only for our planet but our solar system as well. Its effect lasts for billions of years. Here are 10 of the biggest known hits by asteroids in the descending order-n
1. Beaverhead Crater
The first biggest known asteroid hit in our list is Beaverhead crater, which is located in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho. The asteroid hit is almost 600 million years old and has a diameter of 60 km. It is the second largest image structure in America. Only little remains of the cone shaped crater that is entered in Challis, Idaho. While the impact is ancient, it wasn’t until 1990 that the structure was discovered. The surface is extremely weathered, and only very few remnants are visible, like the shatter cones that are found in the Beaverhead mountains.
2. Kara Crater
The next asteroid hit in our list is a non-exposed meteor crater that impacted in Nenetsia, Russia, almost 70.3 million years ago. Presently, the diameter of the crater is 65 km wide. However, scientists have reason to believe that that after the impact the diameter was almost 120 km wide. Due heavy erosion, the width of the crater reduced to almost half. At one point, it seemed that the impact site was in fact 2 different asteroid hits- Kara and Ust-Kara and they formed a twin impact structure. However, due to lack of proof, they are still not considered a separate site.
3. Morokweng Crater
Morokweng crater was discovered through remote sensing surveys by geologists. It was buried underneath South Africa’s Kalahari Desert. What surprised them the most is that when they drilled to look for rock samples to verify the impact, the remnants of the crater were still present 770 m below the surface, even after 145 million year ago (approximately the Jurassic – Cretaceous era). The remnants included a 25 cm piece of the original asteroid.
4. Chesapeake Bay Crater
Discovered in the early 1980’s, Chesapeake Bay crater’s estimated impact date was 35 million years and the impact location is Virginia, United States, 201 km away from Washington, D.C. the crater was formed when an asteroid impacted North America’s eastern shore during the Eocene epoch. It is the best preserved ‘wet target’ impact structures in the world. When it comes to the size of the impact, the marine crater is 85 km wide.
5. Acraman Crater
The next asteroid hit is Acraman crater, which is a round impact crater that fills Lake Acraman in South Australia. It was excavated almost 590 million years ago and has a diameter of 90 kilometers or 56 miles. You can find the impact ejecta in the Flinders Range, 300 km to the east, as well as rocks and fossils from the first few complex life forms that existed on Earth. The crater was reported for the first time in Science journal in the year 1986. Unlike other craters, Acraman is a complex one and does not have a bowl shape, which is associated with most impact sites. There are a lot of variations in the elevation of the impact.
6. Woodleigh Crater
Hidden beneath the red sand is the next largest asteroid hit known to mankind- Woodleigh Crater in the east of Shark Bay, Western Australia. While the crater’s diameter is said to be 120 km and is considered fifth largest crater on our planet’s surface, there are still discrepancies in the reports of its actual size. The reason behind this is because the crater’ surface is not completely visible.
7. Manicouagan Crater
The fourth largest terrestrial impact craters on the planet is Manicouagan crater, located in Quebec, Canada. This impact was produced 200 million years ago with a diameter of 65 kms. The structure that formed was from the shock waves that were transmitted by the whole event. It is just like the rings structure you get when you throw a rock in the water.
8. Popigai Crater
Around 35 million years ago, an asteroid crashed in Siberia into a carbon rich rock deposit. The impact of the crash was so immense that the pressure and temperature transformed the carbon into diamonds. The crash site is Russia’s Popigai Crater. Its diameter is 100 km wide and according to Russian government, it is one of the biggest diamond deposits on this planet.
9. Chicxulub Crater
You can easily call the Chicxulub Crater the most catastrophic event in human kind ever. Recently, scientists have started believing that extinction of dinosaurs and three quarters of life on Earth is due to an asteroid impact. When some 65 million years ago, Chicxulub asteroid crashed into earth, it was the one who snuffed out everything. The crater left behind is known to be the youngest not only on earth, but in our entire solar system. While the current diameter of the crater in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico is 150 km, scientists believed that the original size was around 240 km, bigger than Sudbury crater in Ontario.
10. Vredefort Crater
Blasted 2.2 billion years ago, Vredefort crater or Vredefort Dome is classified as the largest as well as the oldest crater in the world. The impact occurred on Free State, South Africa. With a diameter of 300 km, it is one of the largest known impact structures in the world. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005. The 10 km asteroid made a 100 km wide and 40 km deep dent on earth’s surface. The crater’s aerial view is of eroded ring of hills, that sprang up as rocks rebounded after the smash.
