Crater
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What caused this crater?

All craters are the result of tremendous explosions.  What makes them differ from each other is what caused the explosion.   Impact cratering is a process found everywhere in the solar system except on the giant gaseous planets. Earth has been heavily impacted, but erosion has removed most of the craters.

Perhaps the finest surviving impact crater on Earth is the Barringer Meteor Crater, near Winslow, Arizona. It is 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) across and 200 meters (650 feet) deep. It was formed about 25,000 years ago when a 50 meter (150 foot) nickel/iron meteorite struck the desert at a speed of 11 kilometers per second (25,000 miles per hour). Native Americans living in the region observed the impact and felt the tremendous shock wave that must have moved through the atmosphere.

The image above is of the Wolf Creek Impact Crater. The Wolf Creek Impact Crater is located in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. For more information on the Wolf Creek Impact Crater, follow this link.

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This page last updated February 8, 1998