Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


Meteor Craters on Earth

Over the last few millions of years the Earth has had quite a few impacts from meteors, asteroids, and maybe even peices of comets. Scientists have confirmed 172 locations on the Earth determined to be “impact structures”. In fact, the leading theory for the mass extinction of many animals, including the dinosaurs, 65.5 million years ago was an impact crater known as the “Chicxulub crater”. These locations have been documented in a database available at the Earth Impact Database.
Thinklemon.com has taken the Impact Database and created Google Earth network links (he gets extra points for this) which not only shows the location of the 172 impacts, but shows a size indicator for the larger ones and provides links to Wikipedia articles and other information in the descriptions. He has organized the list by major continents and also includes a list of the top 25. Here is his announcement with his links, or you can download the entire collection now. This is a very nice collection, and since I have a degree in astronomy myself, I just had to write about this. Great job Caspar!
By the way, a good friend of mine has spent over 20 years as an astronomer helping to find near-Earth objects which may someday strike the Earth. He works at the Spacewatch Project at the University of Arizona. If anyone with lots of funding is looking to help us make plans to avoid a major future impact, Spacewatch would be a good project to fund.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

Reader Interactions






PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. Caspar says

    Thanks!
    But I must mention there’s a size indicator for every ‘crater’ available. Some are so small you need to zoom in to make the ‘impact icon’ smaller than the indicator… (Double-click on the folder helps.)
    There is one flaw though. The smaller the crater the more off it is. The data I pulled this off isn’t accurate enough. So this needs some tweaking. Besides this, I plan to make a ‘humanly/humanoid witnessable collection’ and ‘the oldest’ KML. but more on that later.
    Again, feedback is welcome.
    BTW: Do you have data on ‘super-volcanoes’? Size & Lat./Lon.

  2. zac says

    Hey! Landed here all by luck. Just to tell you that I live within the worlds oldest (if not largest) impact site and have done so since 1876.
    There is a lot of talk recently about the South African Govt granting miningrights to a certain company to do open exploration mining within, what we call, The Dome. That would be the begining of the end of Vredefortdome ….
    So, if there might be people to be asked, point your scopes on the Vredefortdome and help preventing destruction. (One small area has been proclaimed “World Heritage” but we feel that this was done to sooth the anger against possible destruction of the rest of the Dome)
    You can find my location @ S027.12.155 E027.35.477
    Happy landing!
    zac

  3. Jake says

    on google earth there is a listing that Hudson Bay, Canada, might be a crater, had this been confirmed or rubbished?

  4. Jake says

    I have found a crater not listed how should I get it listed “impact crater 3” lat=-22.6810815131, lon=133.531999688
    See what you think?

  5. Peter says

    I have been looking at the Craters in Russia and the one’s in Europe are labled as Asia. Id fix this but I dont know how.

  7. Tortuga Jorge says

    I have found a 130+ kilometer impact crater May 26,2007 at 27d N x 107dW in Western Mexico, and nearby smaller craters as well. Calling the big one Crater del Tortuga Jorge. My conjecture is that Chicxulub wasn’t alone.

  9. Randy says

    Yes, looking with interest as a ‘newbie’. Looking for Chinese craters. So few are listed in the big lists. So looking at something like 38″16’N/88″9’E, any thoughts on this? It’s round, seems impossibly placed for man-made, volcanic, or any other shape. Feel free to write at Randall_Higgins at hotmail.com

  10. Sean Mathews says

    I have just played around looing at my state in NH and found this
    LAT 43° 6’35.88″N
    LON 71°11’22.42″W
    And this right north of NH in Quebec
    LAT 45°27’1.97″N
    LON 71° 9’49.75″W
    A few others but it may be my imagination like this one in NH. kinda looks like it could be a REALLY old where most of it is filling in. use the water and the tree outline and you will see a circle. I am sure I am pushing it with this one.
    LAT 42°52’6.35″N
    LON 71°12’3.85″W

  11. Sean Mathews says

    I have just played around looing at my state in NH and found this
    LAT 43° 6’35.88″N
    LON 71°11’22.42″W
    And this right north of NH in Quebec
    LAT 45°27’1.97″N
    LON 71° 9’49.75″W
    A few others but it may be my imagination like this one in NH. kinda looks like it could be a REALLY old where most of it is filling in. use the water and the tree outline and you will see a circle. I am sure I am pushing it with this one.
    LAT 42°52’6.35″N
    LON 71°12’3.85″W

  12. William stengel says

    If the arc in the east side of Hudson Bay is an impact, and it sure looks like it is, it would be about 270 miles across (435KM) thhats the mother of all the known craters – –

  13. Malcolm says

    Yes looking at the 2 possible spots above Boston, near Manchester, one definitely looks like a crater. The older one could also be one. Time and exploring will tell.
    The one above Alice Springs in Australia also looks like one. Hopefully I will be adventure bike riding right there later this year. There is another strange ‘ring’ at 20 40’17.8 S 127 28’56.22 E but may be water depression as a bulldozed track runs right through it.
    I couldn’t find the ones in western Mexico.

  14. Petr says

    I think I found something.It looks like two craters.It’s in Central Europe near village Darmysl, Czech Republic.Check it out on google maps or yahoo.

  15. chris says

    I saw the hudson bay while lookin at google earth and immediately saw what i thought was a huge crater that had been filled with water. i found this forum while trying to find out more information about it. there are some geological anomalies in the region. When Earth’s gravitational field was mapped starting in the 1960s a large region of below-average gravity was detected in the Hudson Bay region. This was initially thought to be a result of the crust still being depressed from the weight of the Laurentide ice sheet during the most recent Ice Age, but more detailed observations taken by the GRACE satellite suggest that this effect cannot account for the entirety of the gravitational anomaly. It is thought that convection in the underlying mantle may be contributing.[3]
    Supposedly there are large deposits of iron ore under the bay which affect magnetic fields and compasses
    a large meteor made of iron could be the source of the anomaly

  16. Monika says

    “near village Darmysl, Czech Republic.”
    I have found the village (49°38′ 27″ – 12°52’45”) but don’t know what you have found. Maybe you could write down the coordinates, it would be a great help!

  18. Charles McGowen says

    At the risk of loosing book sales… I’ve posted a draft copy of a book on the subject along with a much more extensive Google Earth Location file containing that will show you how to perceive thousands upon millions upon trillions of impact sites around the world using Google Earth. See the above URL or go to: http://www.h2orbit.com/ISBN_9780977229239/ISBN_978-0-9772292-3-9.html
    When you’re done with that please visit and review H2Orbit.com – It’s About Sustainability.

  20. Andre Chaisson says

    Hello Gents,
    I believe I have found the mother of all impact craters, actually 2 of them, the large one measuring in at over 500km wide.
    I will be going public in the next few days and will come back and post the link.
    Stay tuned!!

  22. N1XIM says

    Quoting Sean Mathews:
    “I have just played around looing at my state in NH and found this
    LAT 43° 6’35.88″N
    LON 71°11’22.42″W ”
    Alas it is not an impact feature–as is obvious when you are there in person. The Pawtuckaway ‘mountains’ are an ancient volcanic formation.
    “Quick” Reference on Pawtuckaway: http://www.nhpr.org/node/12680
    As for the other NH location you list, that lake/pond has a large kame to one side of it–a glacial feature all the way.

  23. Les Gold says

    Meteor crater is an incorrect term. By definition a meteor is a streak of light in the atmosphere, caused by an object burning in the atmosphere. No streak of light ever made a crater. If the object is large enough not to burn completely and hits the ground it is called a meteorite. These should be called meteorite crates.

  25. shane lewis says

    i believe the depression across from my house in which we call the goose pond, is an impact crater. It is very sandy where i live and very hilly….its like everything got pushed up and out from the impact site…..check it out, across from 1511 lacross ct gresham sc 29546

  26. S. says

    RE comment above:
    I have just played around looing at my state in NH and found this
    LAT 43° 6’35.88″N
    LON 71°11’22.42″W
    This is a ring dyke, google meteor NH you’ll come across a geology explaination. Fooled experts too. Giant Lava bubble collapse actually- pretty cool, not a meteorite impact site tho. Good eye –

  27. David Snyder says

    I have been researching impacts for a very short time and have made some shocking discoveries. Now I have seen every episode of how the earth was made, and I made discoveries that totally discredit just about every episode. If Google Earths representation of the Earth and Moon are correct, then I have been able to prove that the Moon has impacted the Earth many times. One of the largest impacts on Earth is the 1800 mile across crater that stretches across the Middle East. Just look at the Caspian Sea. That shape is a fingerprint of the Moon, and anywhere you see that shape you are only seeing one edge of the total impact site. Any one with the same theory please email me, because there is much more I would like to share with you. When the magnetic pole shifts we can expect it to hit again. And the poles are already moving to its favorite impact area, Siberia.

  28. trent says

    last cuple days i got interested in the impacts because some one asked a question on “yahoo answers”.
    “how come there are no craters on the earth like the moon and mars?” heheheh yeah right.
    iceland is one of the best untouched places on the planet. so i looked there. and found tons of them before i got tired looking at them all.
    this one looks like a twin crater possable tri-crater
    65,50′ 53.21n by 16,54′ 11.85w
    the s-m’s must have hated that spot on the earth lol. the impact craters on the land is not my interest. if i was to request google earth to do something for us it would be for them to give us a better view of the land under the water. it is too blury to make out details. and thats where further discoverys are going to be made by us chair comanders.
    it is my opinion that a camera aray can acomplish this on a sattellite. this is how it should be built.
    …………
    …………
    …………
    …………
    …………
    …………
    …………
    …………
    …………
    ^ much like a house flys eyes are aranged. and the focal pattern of lens should be concave with a servo series on each lens to aid in depth perseption. the quality of the cameras is not an issue. 144 of them from the dollar store will work just fine to google the earths sea floors.

  29. Jamie says

    I discovered something that might look like a crater, at least 1.5 billion years old. Location (Abnehmender 30 stunden mond “Elev 445m 25’15’08.21 N & 17’12’00.97 E) Might be one.

  31. huldah1776 says

    meteor crater in Afghanistan. Google earth south of Kharaibad and east of Deshu. Enjoy!

  32. Brian Hill says

    Check out Red Wing Minnesota, The impact ring is clearly visable in Google Earth. I live just west of there in Zumbrota.

  33. Stefan Scott says

    Australia was a comet nearly half the size of our moon that landed about 43 to 45 million years ago. The time line is based on the 60 degree left turn of the Hawaiian hot spot estimated at 43 million. the giant splatter,the wave patterned debris field in the pacific basin and the wrinkles referred to as the subduction zone that nearly surround the so called ‘continent’ that has allways been a thorn in the side of the Pangea theory. Video on Utube under the misnomer of ‘the first NIBIRU type event’ was posted in haste and contains a few inaccuracies that do not negate the rest.
    As well there is another 100 mile across meteor impact crator in the Pacific at the base of the Philippenes with no time line to go by.

  34. ben thornton says

    Think ive found a undiscovered crater, 10 km north west of alpha qld, has been sent to A.n.u professor Trevor Ireland

  35. Ben thornton says

    Should have mentioned there are two potentials in that area, both are documented and will be visited this week.

  36. Joe D Lee Kaiser says

    Lol… science seems so messed up. Think about it every crater on Earth and on the moon is a direct straight perpendicular hit but yet meteorites come in at an angle these craters are nothing more than gas bubbles produced by geothermal activity look at the Moon there are craters on the moon that are actually not craters they are doomed like they hardened before they popped not one of these are a crater impacts the reason we don’t see meteorite hitting and impacting it’s because it don’t happen these craters were formed when the planets were formed a cooling effect nothing more



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.