How long does it take for a small impact crater to form?

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four impact craters — Meteorite crater Four impact craters of the same size (30 km [20 miles] in diameter) imaged by spacecraft on different solid bodies of the solar system and reproduced at the same scale. They are (clockwise from upper left) Golubkhina crater on Venus, Kepler crater on the Moon, an unnamed crater on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and an unnamed crater on Mars. The images are oriented such that the craters appear illuminated from the left; the Venusian crater is imaged in radar wavelengths, the others in visible light.

The formation of a small impact crater is a rapid event, requiring no more than a few seconds to complete.1

When a meteorite strikes a planetary surface at hypervelocity, it releases an immense amount of kinetic energy in a localized area. This process generates shock waves that vaporize, melt, and crush the surface material, excavating a parabolic bowl-shaped depression. For these smaller, simple craters, the formation process concludes once the excavation phase stops. In contrast, larger craters—which can be tens of kilometres wide—may take a few minutes to form and often undergo a subsequent modification stage where the structure collapses to form complex features like central peaks or rings.1