Scientists uncover the largest crater on Earth under 100,000 years old

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A crescent-shaped crater in Northeast China holds the record as the largest impact crater on Earth that formed in the last 100,000 years.

Prior to 2020, the only other impact crater ever discovered in China was found in Xiuyan county of the coastal province of Liaoning, according to a statement from the NASA Earth Observatory. Then, in July 2021, scientists confirmed that a geological structure in the Lesser Xing'an mountain range had formed as a result of a space rock striking Earth. The team published a description of the newfound impact crater that month in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

The Yilan crater measures about 1.15 miles (1.85 kilometers) across and likely formed about 46,000 to 53,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon dating of charcoal and organic lake sediments from the site, the NASA statement says. Researchers collected these sediment samples by extracting a drillcore from the center of the crater, Forbes reported.

Beneath more than 328 feet (100 meters) of layered lake and swamp sediments lay a nearly 1,000-foot-thick (320 m) slab of brecciated granite, which is granite made up of many rocky fragments cemented together in a matrix, the team found. This rock bears telltale scars of having been struck by a meteorite.

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