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Following are the largest impact craters on various worlds of the Solar System. For a full list of named craters, see List of craters in the Solar System. The ratio column compares the crater diameter with the diameter of the impacted celestial body. The maximum crater diameter is 157% of the body diameter (the circumference along a great circle).
The largest in the last one million years is the 14-kilometre (8.7 mi) Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan and has been described as being capable of producing a nuclear-like winter. [11] The source of the enormous Australasian strewnfield (c. 780 ka) is a currently undiscovered crater probably located in Southeast Asia. [12] [13]
The Vredefort impact structure is the largest verified impact structure on Earth. [1] The crater, which has since been eroded away, has been estimated at 170–300 kilometres (110–190 mi) across when it was formed. [2] [3] The remaining structure, comprising the deformed underlying bedrock, is located in present-day Free State province of ...
The North Polar Basin on Mars is speculated by some to be evidence for a planet-sized impact on the surface of Mars between 3.8 and 3.9 billion years ago, while Utopia Planitia is the largest confirmed impact and Hellas Planitia is the largest visible crater in the Solar System.
A cloud of hot dust, ash and steam would have spread from the crater, with as much as 25 trillion metric tons of excavated material being ejected into the atmosphere by the blast. Some of this material escaped orbit, dispersing throughout the Solar System, [6] while some of it fell back to Earth, vaporizing upon re-entry. The rock heated Earth ...
The Batagay crater isn't actually a crater at all. It's the world's largest "retrogressive thaw slump," a pit that forms when permafrost thaw causes the ground to cave in, creating a landslide as ...
An impact crater is a depression in the surface of a solid astronomical body formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, [2] impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain. [3]
The crater depth is 7,152 m (23,465 ft) below the standard topographic datum of Mars. [1] Hellas Planitia / ˈ h ɛ l ə s p l ə ˈ n ɪ ʃ i ə / is a plain located within the huge, roughly circular impact basin Hellas [a] located in the southern hemisphere of the planet Mars. [3] Hellas is the fourth- or fifth-largest known impact crater in ...