How can I tell if I have found an impact crater?
There are many natural processes other than impacts that can create circular features and depressions on the surface of the Earth. Examples include glaciation, volcanism, sinkholes, atolls, salt domes, intrusions, and hydrothermal explosions (to name just a few). Prehistoric mines and quarries are also sometimes mistaken for impact craters.
Although the USGS has been involved in impact crater research, we are neither the experts nor the ultimate authority on impact craters. Canada’s University of New Brunswick Planetary and Space Science Center is the best resource for confirming a structure as an impact crater. They maintain an Earth Impact Database and provide guidelines for identification of impact craters.
Learn more: This Dynamic Planet: World map of volcanoes, earthquakes, impact craters, and plate tectonics (2006)
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Scientists Return to Ancient Impact Crater
March will mark the beginning of a new field season for scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and its cooperators who will begin drilling a second core hole into an impact structure created 35 million years ago when an asteroid or comet slammed into the ocean near the present-day mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
"Deep Impact" in Chesapeake Bay
No, not another meteor disaster movie, but something left a big impression in the Chesapeake Bay.
Color Shade DEM of Meteor Crater
Color Shade of a DEM(Digital Elevation Model) of Meteor Crater.
Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater
Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater Boundaries Map
Gale crater
Infrared mosaic image of Mars Gale crater by the Thermal Emission Imaging Spectrometer (THEMIS) of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center and Arizona State University. The Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled to land in Gale crater Aug. 5, 2012.
USGS Astrogeology team members at Meteor Crater
USGS Astrogeology team members at Meteor Crater.
Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater
February 2013 public lecture, presented by David Powars
Cratered cones near Hephaestus Fossae
Cratered cones near Hephaestus Fossae, Mars. This might look at first glance like a cinder cone, but it is more likely an impact crater. Using the shadow, one can tell that its floor is at a lower elevation than the surrounding landscape. A cinder cone would rise above the landscape.
Cinder cones (otherwise known as scoria cones) are the most common type of volcano
...PubTalk 3/2007 — Impact!
Piecing together the story of a giant meteorite crater beneath the Atlantic coast
By David S. Powars, Geologist, and R.D. Catchings, Geophysicist
- Buried under Chesapeake Bay is a very well preserved impact structure 56 miles across and more than 2 miles deep
- Following clues from drill holes and seismic imagery, careful
Dome within Mount St. Helens' crater, Nov. 2005
Dome within Mount St. Helens' crater, November 2004, aerial view from the east.
Shoemaker Crater
Resembling splotches of yellow and green paint, salt-encrusted seasonal lakes dot the floor of Western Australia's Shoemaker impact structure. The structure was formed about 1.7 billion years ago and is currently the oldest known impact site in Australia.
- Collection: Earth as Art 2
- Source: Landsat 7
- Download:
Aerial view of Meteor Crater, Coconino County, Arizona
Aerial view of Arizona's Meteor Crater, a 180 meter deep, 1.2 kilometer diameter bowl-shaped impact crater in Northern Arizona. The crater formed approximately 50,000 years ago by the impact of a 100,000-ton iron-nickel meteorite that was approximately 30 meters in diameter and struck at an approximate speed of 12-20 km/sec.
Aerial view of Meteor Crater, color, Coconino County, Arizona
Meteor Crater formed approximately 50,000 years ago by the impact of a 100,000-ton iron-nickel meteorite, ~30 m in diameter, which struck at an approximate speed of 12-20 km/sec. The Canyon Diablo meteorite, so named for the small canyon to the west of the crater, exploded with the force of over 2 million tons of TNT (or about 150 times the force of the atomic bomb
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