What is the worlds largest impact crater?
The largest known impact crater probably is the Vredefort formation in South Africa. Severely eroded, it’s about 2.023 billion years old and originally was probably 186 miles across, according to reconstructions. Manicouagan: A circular lake in Quebec outlines an eroded crater more than 60 miles across that occurred about 215 million years ago, about the time the dinosaur age began. Chicxulub: University of Arizona researchers helped identify this 120-mile-wide buried formation in Mexico’s Yucatn Peninsula, partly offshore, in the 1990s and are now exploring it in detail. A massive impact formed it about 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs died out. Bedout: Recently, scientists reported strong evidence that a 125-mile-wide crater, the 250 million-year-old Bedout structure, lurks beneath the waters off northwestern Australia. Popigai: This Russian crater more than 60 miles across formed 35 million years ago. Acraman: This Australian crater is more than 50 miles wide and 590 million
