The ten biggest confirmed asteroid and comet scars on Earth, ranked by the diameter of the impact structure they left behind.
Quick answer: 1. Vredefort, 2. Chicxulub, 3. Sudbury, 4. Popigai, 5. Manicouagan, 6. Acraman, 7. Siljan Ring, 8. Morokweng, 9. Tookoonooka, 10. Kara.
Earth has been hit by asteroids and comets throughout its history, and the largest of those impacts carved structures tens to hundreds of kilometers across. Erosion, burial, and plate tectonics have erased most of the evidence, but the biggest scars are so vast that geologists can still map them today. This list ranks the ten largest confirmed impact structures on Earth by the standardized diameter of the structure, from South Africa's ancient Vredefort to the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub crater in Mexico. It is for anyone curious about the most violent geological events in the planet's past, and how the size of a crater compares across continents and billions of years of history.
At a standardized 160 km, Vredefort is the largest confirmed impact structure on Earth. Estimates of the original crater run as high as 300 km when it formed roughly 2 billion years ago, which would make it even larger than Chicxulub.
The 150 km Chicxulub structure is the most infamous crater on the planet: its impactor is tied to the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Individual estimates put the original crater at 180 to 200 km.
The third-largest confirmed structure at 130 km, Sudbury is also among the oldest, formed 1.85 billion years ago. Deformed over time, it now survives as an elongated basin roughly 62 by 30 km and hosts some of the world's richest nickel deposits.
Popigai ties Manicouagan for fourth-largest at 100 km. The impact 35.7 million years ago shock-transformed graphite in the target rock into vast deposits of industrial-grade impact diamonds.
This 100 km structure is one of the most recognizable impact features from orbit: erosion left a ring-shaped reservoir circling its central uplift. It formed about 215 million years ago.
A deeply eroded 90 km structure roughly 580 million years old, Acraman is confirmed in part by its ejecta layer, which survives in rocks hundreds of kilometers away from the impact site.
Sweden's largest impact structure and the largest known in Europe, the Siljan Ring is listed at roughly 65 to 75 km (representative value 70 km) and is about 381 million years old.
A buried 70 km structure about 146 million years old, Morokweng is notable because drilling recovered an intact fragment of the original meteorite preserved within its impact-melt sheet.
Hidden beneath the Eromanga Basin, this 66 km structure is entirely buried and about 123 million years old. It was detected through subsurface geophysical surveys and drill data.
A heavily eroded 65 km structure on the Kara Sea coast, roughly 75 million years old, Kara rounds out the ten largest confirmed impact craters on Earth. Its original crater is estimated at up to 120 km before erosion.
| # | Name | Location | Age (million years) | Original crater estimate (km) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vredefort | Free State, South Africa | 2023 | 170-300 |
| 2 | Chicxulub | Yucatan, Mexico | 66 | 180-200 |
| 3 | Sudbury | Ontario, Canada | 1849 | 130-260 |
| 4 | Popigai | Siberia, Russia | 35.7 | 100 |
| 5 | Manicouagan | Quebec, Canada | 215.56 | 100 |
| 6 | Acraman | South Australia, Australia | 580 | 90 |
| 7 | Siljan Ring | Dalarna, Sweden | 380.9 | 65-75 |
| 8 | Morokweng | North West, South Africa | 146.06 | 70 |
| 9 | Tookoonooka | Queensland, Australia | 123 | 66 |
| 10 | Kara | Nenetsia, Russia | 75.34 | 120 |
Items are ranked by the diameter of the confirmed impact structure in kilometers, largest first, as catalogued in the Earth Impact Database and Wikipedia's standardized "List of impact structures on Earth." Inclusion is limited to confirmed (not proposed or unconfirmed) terrestrial impact structures; each is ranked by the standardized structure-diameter figure from the reference table. Where the reference gives a range, the representative value from that table is used. Note that this standardized figure is the diameter of the surviving structure, which can differ from estimates of the original crater's size when it formed (shown in the comparison table for context). Ties in diameter are listed adjacently.
The Vredefort structure in South Africa is the largest confirmed impact structure on Earth, with a standardized diameter of about 160 km. Estimates of the original crater when it formed roughly 2 billion years ago run as high as 170 to 300 km.
No. Chicxulub, the crater linked to the dinosaur-killing extinction 66 million years ago, is the second-largest confirmed structure at about 150 km. Vredefort is larger by the standardized diameter, though some estimates of Chicxulub's original crater (180 to 200 km) overlap with lower estimates for Vredefort.
Erosion, burial under younger rock, and plate tectonics erase most impact craters over time. Several of the largest confirmed structures, such as Morokweng and Tookoonooka, are completely buried and were only found through drilling and geophysical surveys rather than a visible crater on the surface.
Geologists use the diameter of the surviving impact structure, catalogued in databases like the Earth Impact Database, which is what this list ranks. That standardized figure can differ from estimates of the original crater's size when it formed, so the comparison table shows both.