• Question: What is the biggest meteor crater

    Asked by Denty to Jane on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Jane MacArthur

      Jane MacArthur answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      The largest we have discovered to date is the Vredefort crater in South Africa, I have a friend who studied it as part of her PhD, more than 300km across (diameter) when first formed (2 billion years old). The Sudbury basin which I visited in Canada is the second biggest, 250km (1.8 billion years old).

      The Chicxulub impact, in the Gulf of Mexico is third biggest (180km) – it is thought this was the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, around 65 million years ago.

Comments