The Most Catastrophic Asteroid Impacts in Earth’s History
Scientists have long warned us about the potential threat of asteroids approaching Earth. Occasionally, we hear about large asteroids, comparable in size to planes, coming close to our planet, but fortunately, none have collided with Earth thus far. While experts believe that there is no immediate danger of a civilization-ending asteroid impact, they acknowledge that such events are still possible. Space agencies worldwide are actively researching and identifying space rocks, as well as developing strategies to protect our planet from potential impacts. Interestingly, ancient history reveals that Earth was more susceptible to asteroid impacts, suggesting that the space environment was more turbulent in the past. Let’s explore some of the most significant asteroid impacts that have occurred on our planet.
Largest asteroid impact craters
Vredefort Crater
According to a NASA report, it is one of the oldest collisions, occurring around 2 billion years ago when a massive 10 km asteroid hit the Earth’s surface and created the Vredefort crater. The impact crater covered a huge area of about 180-300 kilometers.
Sudbury Basin Impact
NASA reports that the Sudbury Basin was created about 1.8 billion years ago. The impact crater was measured to be about 200 kilometers. Earlier it was assumed that the impact was an asteroid, but it was later discovered that the object was actually an icy rock – a comet.
The Chicxulub Effect
It is one of the most famous impacts in history because the event was responsible for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and the evolution of mammals on Earth. The 10 km long asteroid created an impact crater about 200 km wide. The impact of the asteroid killed more than 70 percent of Earth’s species. It happened about 65 million years ago.
Meteor Crater
This strike is known to be a recent event, occurring around 50,000 years ago. It was an iron asteroid that hit North America. “An impact event of the same size today could destroy a city the size of Kansas City,” said David Kring, an impact crater expert at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. The size of the asteroid was measured to be about 100-170 feet and the dimensions of the crater are about 1.2 kilometers.
Clearwater Lakes craters
This crater is known to have had two asteroid impacts that occurred 280 million and 450 million years ago. The effect of Clearwater West was measured to be 32 kilometers and the diameter of Clearwater East was 26 kilometers. Now the affected areas are lakes.
