What is a meteorite crater?

A meteorite crater, also known as an impact crater, is a depression in a planet or moon's surface caused by a high-speed collision with a space object like a meteorite or asteroid . These craters are a key geological feature in the solar system, found on rocky surfaces and icy moons. The size of a crater varies, but it is usually much larger than the object that created it. The impact releases vast amounts of kinetic energy, behaving like an explosion and creating zones of vaporized, melted, and crushed material. The resulting crater has an elevated rim and an ejecta blanket of excavated material surrounding it.

How does a meteorite crater form?

When a space object crashes into a planet, it makes a meteorite crater . These objects usually travel at extreme speeds. When they collide, it's called a hypervelocity impact, releasing a lot of kinetic energy in a short time. This impact sends out shock waves into the planet and the object, creating zones of vaporized, melted, and crushed material. The object is usually vaporized completely by the released energy. The impact creates a bowl-shaped depression, with material thrown out, forming a rim around the crater. Small craters are simple, but larger ones can collapse, leading to complex craters with features like flat floors, central peaks, or raised rings.

What are the main features of a meteorite crater?

A meteorite crater, also known as an impact crater, is a depression in a planet or moon's surface caused by a high-velocity collision with a space object. Formation involves hypervelocity impact, where the object's kinetic energy is transferred to the surface, creating shock waves and pressure gradients. The basic form of a meteorite crater is a bowl-shaped depression, with a diameter about ten times larger than the impacting object. The excavated material forms an ejecta blanket around the crater, with the highest elevation at the rim. Larger craters undergo a modification stage after the initial excavation, leading to complex structures such as flat floors, central peaks, terraced inner rims, and megaterraces.

What happens to the land when a meteorite hits it?

When a meteorite strikes land, the impact releases immense kinetic energy, behaving like an atomic explosion. This hypervelocity impact generates shock waves that vaporize, melt, and crush material, forming a depression. The resulting crater is typically a parabolic bowl, surrounded by an elevated rim and an ejecta blanket of excavated material. Small craters form in seconds, while larger ones take minutes. Large impacts can cause the parabolic hole to collapse, leading to complex craters with features such as flat floors, central peaks, circular rings, and terraced inner rims. Very large impacts can create megaterraces and impact basins. The meteorite itself is usually vaporized.

Why do some craters stay visible for millions of years while others disappear?

The visibility of meteorite craters over millions of years depends on various geological and environmental factors. Earth's active geology and weather conditions contribute to the disappearance of craters. Processes such as volcanism and plate tectonics can eliminate or severely degrade craters. Erosion, unique to Earth among well-studied solid bodies, plays a dominant role in crater removal. In contrast, bodies like the Moon, with minimal geological activity and virtually no weather, retain their craters for extended periods. The absence or sparseness of craters indicates ongoing geological activity, while a heavily cratered surface suggests minimal alteration over billions of years.

How do scientists study meteorite craters to learn about Earth's history?

Scientists study meteorite craters to understand Earth's history by examining the impact-cratering process and crater distribution. The size and morphology of a crater offer insights into the impactor's size and velocity. By studying the number and distribution of craters on a planet or moon, scientists can infer the relative ages of different surface regions. A surface with more craters is generally older than one with fewer craters, assuming similar impact rates. The absence or sparseness of craters indicates relatively recent geologic activity, such as volcanism or erosion , which has resurfaced or altered the surface. Also, the analysis of crater ejecta and shocked minerals provides information about the composition of both the impactor and the target rocks.

Meteorite crater

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Overview of meteorites and their impact on the earth

Interactive: A Tour of the Moon's Landmarks.

steps in the formation of a complex impact crater

At a Glance

meteorite crater summary

Meteorite crater

landform

Also known as: impact crater

Written by

Robert R. Herrick

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 9, 2026 •History

Top Questions

What is a meteorite crater?
A meteorite crater, also known as an impact crater, is a depression in a planet or moon's surface caused by a high-speed collision with a space object like a meteorite or asteroid. These craters are a key geological feature in the solar system, found on rocky surfaces and icy moons.

The size of a crater varies, but it is usually much larger than the object that created it. The impact releases vast amounts of kinetic energy, behaving like an explosion and creating zones of vaporized, melted, and crushed material. The resulting crater has an elevated rim and an ejecta blanket of excavated material surrounding it.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How does a meteorite crater form?
When a space object crashes into a planet, it makes a meteorite crater. These objects usually travel at extreme speeds. When they collide, it's called a hypervelocity impact, releasing a lot of kinetic energy in a short time. This impact sends out shock waves into the planet and the object, creating zones of vaporized, melted, and crushed material. The object is usually vaporized completely by the released energy.

The impact creates a bowl-shaped depression, with material thrown out, forming a rim around the crater. Small craters are simple, but larger ones can collapse, leading to complex craters with features like flat floors, central peaks, or raised rings.
2 Britannica Sources
1. meteorite crater
2. meteor and meteoroid: Meteorites—meteoroids that survive atmospheric entry
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What are the main features of a meteorite crater?
A meteorite crater, also known as an impact crater, is a depression in a planet or moon's surface caused by a high-velocity collision with a space object. Formation involves hypervelocity impact, where the object's kinetic energy is transferred to the surface, creating shock waves and pressure gradients.

The basic form of a meteorite crater is a bowl-shaped depression, with a diameter about ten times larger than the impacting object. The excavated material forms an ejecta blanket around the crater, with the highest elevation at the rim.

Larger craters undergo a modification stage after the initial excavation, leading to complex structures such as flat floors, central peaks, terraced inner rims, and megaterraces.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
What happens to the land when a meteorite hits it?
When a meteorite strikes land, the impact releases immense kinetic energy, behaving like an atomic explosion. This hypervelocity impact generates shock waves that vaporize, melt, and crush material, forming a depression.

The resulting crater is typically a parabolic bowl, surrounded by an elevated rim and an ejecta blanket of excavated material. Small craters form in seconds, while larger ones take minutes. Large impacts can cause the parabolic hole to collapse, leading to complex craters with features such as flat floors, central peaks, circular rings, and terraced inner rims. Very large impacts can create megaterraces and impact basins. The meteorite itself is usually vaporized.
4 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Why do some craters stay visible for millions of years while others disappear?
The visibility of meteorite craters over millions of years depends on various geological and environmental factors.

Earth's active geology and weather conditions contribute to the disappearance of craters. Processes such as volcanism and plate tectonics can eliminate or severely degrade craters. Erosion, unique to Earth among well-studied solid bodies, plays a dominant role in crater removal.

In contrast, bodies like the Moon, with minimal geological activity and virtually no weather, retain their craters for extended periods. The absence or sparseness of craters indicates ongoing geological activity, while a heavily cratered surface suggests minimal alteration over billions of years.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
How do scientists study meteorite craters to learn about Earth's history?
Scientists study meteorite craters to understand Earth's history by examining the impact-cratering process and crater distribution. The size and morphology of a crater offer insights into the impactor's size and velocity.

By studying the number and distribution of craters on a planet or moon, scientists can infer the relative ages of different surface regions. A surface with more craters is generally older than one with fewer craters, assuming similar impact rates.

The absence or sparseness of craters indicates relatively recent geologic activity, such as volcanism or erosion, which has resurfaced or altered the surface. Also, the analysis of crater ejecta and shocked minerals provides information about the composition of both the impactor and the target rocks.
3 Britannica Sources
Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Meteorite crater, depression that results from the impact of a natural object from interplanetary space with Earth or with other comparatively large solid bodies such as the Moon, other planets and their satellites, or larger asteroids and comets. For this discussion, the term meteorite crater is considered to be synonymous with impact crater. As such, the colliding objects are not restricted by size to meteorites as they are found on Earth, where the largest known meteorite is a nickel-iron object less than 3 metres (10 feet) across. Rather, they include chunks of solid material of the same nature as comets or asteroids and in a wide range of sizes—from small meteoroids (see meteor and meteoroid) up to comets and asteroids themselves.

Meteorite crater formation is arguably the most important geologic process in the solar system, as meteorite craters cover most solid-surface bodies, Earth being a notable exception. Meteorite craters can be found not only on rocky surfaces like that of the Moon but also on the surfaces of comets and ice-covered moons of the outer planets. Formation of the solar system left countless pieces of debris in the form of asteroids and comets and their fragments. Gravitational interactions with other objects routinely send this debris on a collision course with planets and their moons. The resulting impact from a piece of debris produces a surface depression many times larger than the original object. Although all meteorite craters are grossly similar, their appearance varies substantially with both size and the body on which they occur. If no other geologic processes have occurred on a planet or moon, its entire surface is covered with craters as a result of the impacts sustained over the past 4.6 billion years since the major bodies of the solar system formed. On the other hand, the absence or sparseness of craters on a body’s surface, as is the case for Earth’s surface, is an indicator of some other geologic process (e.g., erosion or surface melting) occurring during the body’s history that is eliminating the craters.